Boko Haram Murdered Christian's Son to 'Teach Her a Lesson' for Not Converting to Islam - WORLD WATCH MONITOR

Rebecca Bitrus was abducted by Boko Haram in 2014. ( Claire Giangravé/Crux news agency)

Boko Haram Murdered Christian's Son to 'Teach Her a Lesson' for Not Converting to Islam

3/2/2018 WORLD WATCH MONITOR

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The shocking story of Rebecca Bitrus, a Nigerian woman who suffered terrible abuse after her capture by Boko Haram in 2014, has been shared with Pope Francis at a meeting in the Vatican.

Her story, shared as the Colosseum was lit up in red last Saturday (Feb. 24) in support of persecuted Christians, is part of the grim picture created by Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency that has claimed more than 20,000 lives and forced more than 2 million others to flee.

The young woman, who was brought up a Catholic, was with her husband and two sons when in Aug. 2014 Boko Haram militants abducted her and her children, while her husband managed to escape, Catholic news agency Crux reports.

They were taken to a forest encampment where she was forced to convert to Islam. When she refused, one of the militants told her he was going to "teach her a lesson," and so he snatched Rebecca's youngest son, 3-year-old Jonathan, and drowned him in a nearby river while Rebecca was watching.

Fearing the same fate for her older son, 5-year-old Zachary, Rebecca began partook in Islamic devotions but says she inwardly recited Catholic prayers.

"They would come on us with their guns and force us to pray. Each time I bent down to pray, I was reciting the 'Hail Mary' and the 'Our Father'," Rebecca told Crux.

After being forcibly married to a Boko Haram fighter, Rebecca says she was raped repeatedly for months, resulting in a new child.

After spending two years in captivity, one day, when gunshots alerted her that Nigerian troops were approaching the camp, Rebecca managed to flee into the forest with her children. Away from the camp, she says she decided to leave 6-month-old Cristopher, the child conceived from a militant, behind, as he would be a constant reminder of her time in captivity.

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However, her older son changed her mind.

"Zachary told me, 'Jonathan isn't here anymore, I don't have a little brother, so why don't you take Christopher?'" she told Crux.

Wandering through the forest for 28 days with no food or water, being bitten by mosquitoes and developing rashes, they eventually reached an army base. She was taken to a hospital and later transported to Maiduguri, her hometown and the capital of the northern state of Borno.

At church, she was reunited with her husband but says she still struggled to accept the Boko Haram militant's child and wanted to give him away for adoption.

However, Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri convinced her to keep the child and helped her to feel more positively towards him.

Christopher was baptized by Father Innocent Zambua of Maiduguri, with whom Rebecca visited the pope.

She told her story to the pope, who hailed Rebecca an example of Christian persecution, along with the Pakistani Christian woman Asia Bibi, who has been on death row for blasphemy since 2010. 

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor.

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Iranian Christians See Hope Stripped Away With Extreme Torture, Harassment on the Rise - WORLD WATCH MONITOR

Former prisoners reflect on the Christians still behind bars in Iran. (Open Doors International)

Iranian Christians See Hope Stripped Away With Extreme Torture, Harassment on the Rise

3/1/2018 WORLD WATCH MONITOR

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There was hope among Iranian Christians that the mass protests earlier this year could effect change for them, but they continue to be harassed and imprisoned on spurious charges.

An Iranian convert to Christianity, Naser Navard Gol-Tapeh, who recently lost his appeal against a 10-year sentence for "missionary activities", was reportedly moved to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran two weeks ago—the same prison where two other Christians, Majidreza Souzanchi Kushani and Fatimeh Mohammadi (both members of the self-styled "Church of Iran"), have also been held since their arrest on Nov. 17 last year.

According to the advocacy group Middle East Concern, Kushani was charged with "disrupting national security" by being a member of an evangelical Christian group, for which he could receive a prison sentence of between two and ten years.

It remains unclear on what grounds Mohammadi is being held, in the women's ward of the infamous prison referred to by two other Christian women who spent eight months there as the "the world's most brutal prison".

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh, speaking in November, said they experienced relentless interrogation and physical threats during their time in the prison in 2009/10.

It has been eight years since their release, but Rostampour said: "When people experience living in Evin Prison they will never be the same again. The stress is too much. We can't be the same people. We can't be as happy as before. We don't enjoy activities like normal people because all the time we think of those who are still there."

'They broke my identity'

Another Christian who recently spent time in the prison was Saman.* A convert from Islam to Christianity, Saman was arrested in 2016 and imprisoned in Evin for 44 days because of activities related to his Christian faith.

He says the time following his release was also difficult, as the authorities kept an eye on him to ensure he wouldn't visit other Christians or attend a church meeting. He says he was traumatized but did not receive the support he needed.

A local partner of the Christian charity Open Doors recently organized trauma-care training for Christians like him, where they were offered counselling, art therapy and Bible studies. Saman says the training helped to restore his hope and faith.

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Saman says of his time in Evin: "They tried to break me by telling me what a nobody I was; they broke my identity." He says he was afraid and felt hopeless, even doubting his faith: "I thought: 'Is this it? Have I wasted 13 years of believing in Him [God]? Does he even exist?'"

He says the interrogators also brought in some of his friends, blindfolded, and when asked whose fault it was that they were there, they would all say "Saman" and that they would be willing to testify against him in court.

Evin Prison was visited by a delegation of 11 Iranian MPs on 30 January to investigate alleged abuse, as Radio Farda reported. During their visit, the MPs spoke with four detainees while surrounded by intelligence officers, drawing criticism from the deputy head of parliament's Legal and Judicial Commission, Mohammad Kazemi, who said: "It would have been better if they'd stayed away, since we had to talk to the detainees in private."

'We should trust the people'

Earlier this month, on the occasion of the 39th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, President Hassan Rouhani called for unity, saying: "We should trust the people. We must allow all inclinations to participate in elections ... Our revolution was victorious when we were all together ... All Iranian races, all Iranian religions, Shiites and Sunnis, Muslims, Christians, Jews and Zaroastrians—whoever believes in the constitution, that is our criteria. He is a revolutionary, and he must be respected."

His comments followed weeks of social unrest and protests, revealing not just economic frustration but also disillusionment with the way the 39-year-old regime is perceived by some to "use Islam for their own ideology", as Article 18's Mansour Borji told World Watch Monitor in January.

But despite the pressures, Christianity is spreading in Iran. Official figures are hard to come by in a country where turning away from Islam is a crime, but based on observing several factors Christian charity Open Doors says there are approximately 800,000 Christians in Iran—roughly one per cent of its population of over 80 million. This is a conservative estimate, they add, as several reports show that that the church is growing and that Christians from a Muslim background—and therefore unrecognized by the state—now outnumber the recognized Christian minorities of Armenian and Assyrian descent.

*Real name withheld for security reasons. 

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor.

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Bible-Believing Wife Stuns Broadcaster With This Matthew 5 Declaration - WORLD WATCH MONITOR

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Bible-Believing Wife Stuns Broadcaster With This Matthew 5 Declaration

4/26/2017 WORLD WATCH MONITOR

A woman whose husband died intercepting one of the suicide bombers who attacked churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday has told Egyptian TV she completely forgives his killer, causing the news anchor to exclaim that Copts "are made from a different substance."

Naseem Faheem, the guard at St. Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the first people to be killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the cathedral, having been prevented from entering. His widow told Egypt's ONTV that she is not angry with the suicide bomber, has forgiven him and prays that God would also forgive him.

"I'm not angry at the one who did this," she said, with her children by her side. "I'm telling him, 'May God forgive you, and we also forgive you. Believe me, we forgive you. You put my husband in a place I couldn't have dreamed of. Believe me, I am proud of him. And I wish I was there beside him.'"

Footage subtitled and circulated by the Bible Society shows television host Amr Adeeb speechless for about 10 seconds after watching the interview.

"The Copts of Egypt are made of steel!" he says eventually. "If it were my father, I could never say this. These people have so much forgiveness. But this is their faith and religious conviction. These people are made from a different substance."

Watch the video to see more.

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor.

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The 5 Attacks on Churches This Week No One Told You About - ANTO AKKARA WORLD WATCH MONITOR

An armed policeman secures the Coptic church that was bombed on Sunday in Tanta, Egypt. (REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)

The 5 Attacks on Churches This Week No One Told You About 

4/11/2017 ANTO AKKARA/WORLD WATCH MONITOR

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India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticized for condemning the Palm Sunday attacks on churches in Egypt but failing to condemn attacks in his own country.

On the same day that two churches were bombed in Egypt, five churches in India— in five different states—were targeted (details below).

Church groups have called for extra security to be provided for churches in the run-up to Easter, and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the Egypt bombings but is not bothered about the blunt intimidation and assaults on Christians under his care," Rev. Roger Gaikwad, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India, told World Watch Monitor.

"Modi as usual wants to maintain a good international image. Such a statement (condemning attacks in Egypt) also bolsters the stereotype of Muslims as terrorists and Christians as people who are attacked because their proselytizing activities are inviting problems for themselves."

The Evangelical Fellowship of India released a statement today (April 11), in which it criticized the "targeting of Christians on special days of worship, such as Palm Sunday" as "condemnable".

"We urge the respective state governments and the central (federal) government to not only take note of these violations, but also to take action to curtail the non-state actors who function with impunity," the statement read.

"It is important, especially now as we are in the Passion Week, for, going by the trends so far, it seems the incidents may escalate during Good Friday and Easter. It does not reflect well on the world's largest democracy, if incidents like these continue to hound religious minorities.

"We also request that the state machinery be held accountable and responsible for enforcing the rule of law, so that minorities can live in peace and without fear,"

Four of the five states in which the incidents took place are ruled by the Hindu-nationalist BJP—Modi's party. Meanwhile, so-called "anti-conversion laws"—which on the face of it protect against forced conversions but in reality discriminate against minority groups by forbidding them from any evangelism—are in force in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, where one attack took place, while they are also soon likely to be introduced in the western state of Rajasthan, where another incident occurred. Such laws also used to be in force in another of the affected states—the southern state of Tamil Nadu—but were repealed after the ruling party lost all its parliamentary seats.

The National Council of Churches in India said the sudden spurt in anti-Christian violence is a "signal" that Hindu nationalist groups like the BJP and RSS "are going to use the communal card in the most blatant way"—by teaching majority-Hindus that minorities like Christians and Muslims present a threat to the Hindu nation.

Activist John Dayal added: "The rash of violence against Christians, disrupting Palm Sunday prayers, speaks of a heightened impunity, and, we suspect, a more direct collusion of police and local authorities."

What Happened?

The information below, detailing five incidents in five different states on Palm Sunday (April 9), was provided by the Evangelical Fellowship of India.

Madhya Pradesh (Sitabedi village, Khandwa district)

Hindu extremists accompanied by police personnel disrupted a church service. Police arrested the pastors and their wives, and other Christians, and took them to the local police station. Three pastors were detained under the under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act ("anti-conversion law"), but others were released that evening.

Haryana (Kaithal)

Hindu extremists disrupted the church service led by a pastor named Yashpal. The group "threatened and manhandled" the Christians and filed an official complaint at the local police station, alleging Christians had been forcing people to convert. Police then took the Christians into custody. The local inspector said it had been "protective custody" and that they were released after the allegations against them were found to be baseless.

Uttar Pradesh (Jahanpur village, Ghazipur district)

A mob beat up Krishna Paul, the leader of Believers Church, and handed him over to the police. He was released after local Christian leaders intervened and spoke to the police.

Rajasthan (Sri Ganganagar)

Hindu extremists disrupted the service at the church of God, and church leader Saji Mathew was arrested and taken into police custody, along with seven other Christians. Local villagers, with the help of a Hindu priest, had complained to the village chief that Christians had been "engaging in conversions." The village chief then signed a complaint and gave it to the local police, who arrested the Christians. After other local Christian leaders pleaded with the police to release the Christians, they were set free later that night.

Tamil Nadu (Keeranur, Dindigul district)

Government officials disrupted private prayers at the house of a man named Gunasekaran. The officials took video clips and pictures of people praying and then told them to stop. They also told them to ask permission from the District Collector before praying again in the house. Gunasekaran's extended family (about 20 people) have gathered in his house every Sunday for the last 24 years, for private prayers. Gunasekaran was forced to sign a piece of paper and told to report to the local government office the following day. The Evangelical Fellowship of India noted that the prayers are attended only by family members and not by other members of the public, and that no loudspeaker system is used during the prayers. 

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor.

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Man Miraculously Set Free From ISIS Reveals How God Intervened During Capture - WORLD WATCH MONITOR CHARISMA NEWS

Iraqi army soldiers search a house for Islamic State militants and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) north of Mosul, Iraq, Jan. 19, 2017. (Reuters/Ari Jalal)

Man Miraculously Set Free From ISIS Reveals How God Intervened During Capture

 2/9/2017 WORLD WATCH MONITOR  CHARISMA NEWS

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"Meghrik* was on a bus when it happened.

He was travelling from Aleppo to Al-Qamishli in the north east of Syria, a seven-hour journey even before the war started. Now, war means there are many checkpoints to stall progress on the 430-kilometer trip.

After a few hours, they approached yet another checkpoint. Drawing closer, the travelers could see the black and white flag of Islamic State (IS) blowing in the breeze. In the distance, they could just see the city of Raqqa, where IS still has its Syrian headquarters.

The driver slowed down and stopped when an IS fighter, dressed all in black, raised his hand.

Three fighters got on. Meghrik, sitting at the back, watched as they began checking other passengers' IDs. He started to sweat and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

A fighter stopped next to him. "Are you a Christian?" he asked.

Meghrik answered "no". He was raised by Christian parents and the family name was on his ID card, but he didn't believe in God anymore; he thought Christianity was ridiculous.

"You're lying. Your name says you're a Christian. Come with me," the fighter said.

'Worst Case Scenario'

He was paralyzed by fear. Being kidnapped by IS was a worst-case scenario in the minds of most Middle Eastern Christians. Torture, sadism, death threats and pressure to deny Christ are some of the things the imprisoned might face. But the soldier appeared reasonable despite the reputation of IS.

Meghrik left the bus, taking a small bag with him. As he passed the other passengers, he noticed the horror and fear on their faces.

The soldier showed Meghrik's ID to the commander at the checkpoint, who said: "An infidel. You cannot continue your journey." Meghrik tried to speak but was ordered to shut his mouth.

Sent to a house in Raqaa, later in the day he sat in a mocked-up courtroom facing an IS judge, who looked at his ID and concluded that he was a Christian.

"You're sentenced to death," the judge said.

As Meghrik heard the words, he felt like he was in a nightmare.

"It cannot be true," he told himself.

He felt the strength leave his body, replaced by fear.

"But I am not a Christian, I don't believe what my parents taught me," he told the judge in a whisper.

"This is the verdict," the judge replied.

Meghrik was thrown into a room that served as his prison cell. Fear kept him awake, and he hoped that it was all a big misunderstanding.

Later, men in black clothes took him to be executed. They tied his arms, covered his eyes and pushed him into a car. After driving through the city, they arrived at an open area. There were graves already dug for those sentenced to death.

Loaded Weapons

They took off Meghrik's blindfold, and he looked into the hole with horror. They pushed him in and then he heard the men loading their weapons. Tears ran down his cheeks, and he felt completely helpless. 

Seconds passed, but there was no shot. Then one of the soldiers broke the silence.

"You can live if you convert to Islam," he shouted.

"I will convert," replied Meghrik, seeing no other way out.

The men took him out of the hole and back to the room where he was imprisoned. He felt relieved but still fearful, especially when another man in the room with him said: "Converting is of no use. They kill you anyway."

The next day, IS soldiers took him to be interrogated and tortured. They gave him 30 lashes from a length of cable; this treatment went on for two more days.

On the fourth day, he faced a new accusation. "We checked your mobile phone. You insulted the Prophet," said one of the men. "Tomorrow we will kill you. You will go with a car bomb or we will slaughter you in another way," another man added.

Fortunately for Meghrik, that never happened. One of the IS leaders visited and told him he would be taken to another place and not executed.

He was taken to another IS judge, who told him he would soon be free.

Ten days after he was kidnapped, Meghrik walked out of the IS prison holding a document that gave him the right to pass through IS checkpoints and return home to his parents.

Asked why he felt he wasn't killed, Meghrik says it was an answer to prayer, even though he hadn't felt able to accept the existence of God.

"The moment they threw me in the hole to kill me, I said to God, 'If you exist, please give me a chance to get to know You.'" He continued to pray for his release even though he was later forced to convert to Islam and then tortured. "God changed the heart of the judge, and he set me free," he said. 

*Name changed for security reasons.

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor. 

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Iraqi Christians Look Homeward Toward Mosul, Uncertainly - WORLD WATCH MONITOR CHARISMA NEWS

A man returns to his village after it was liberated from Islamic State militants, south of Mosul in Qayyara. (REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani)

Iraqi Christians Look Homeward Toward Mosul, Uncertainly

10/24/2016 WORLD WATCH MONITOR  CHARISMA NEWS

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Tens of thousands of Christians fled from Mosul and its surrounding towns and villages to Kurdistan when Islamic State (IS or ISIS) seized swathes of territory in summer 2014.

Several thousand families have sought refuge in Jordan and Lebanon, while others have left the Middle East to start new lives in Western nations such as Canada, Australia and, in a small number of cases, Britain. Levels of Christian emigration began rising in response to the violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion and removal of President Saddam Hussein.

Rev. Ammar is a Chaldean priest who fled from the town of Qaraqosh—home to some 60,000 Christians until summer 2014, and now being fought over as the coalition of forces advances on Mosul. He serves displaced Moslawis (people from Mosul) in the Kurdish capital, Erbil, and said: "We hope to be able to return to our houses and towns soon."

Rev. Thabet, of the village of Karamles, said he wanted to return to the nearby Hill of St. Barbara, a mound on top of ruins of ancient Assyrian temples—named after a pagan ruler's daughter who converted to Christianity in the fourth century. "If my town is liberated, then one of the greatest joys would be to have a Mass in the open air on top of the Hill of St. Barbara and celebrate the holy Eucharist [there] again."

Rev. Poulos, from the town of Bashiqa, said: "We are warned that IS possibly put mines in our houses. After villages are liberated, it may still take more than three months before we can go back for a first visit. Returning to our houses then would take even longer." He added that all this week heavy fighting has been reported in his home town. "In Bashiqa it's a true war situation, with Turks, Peshmerga and Iraqi forces coming in—a lot of explosions and fighting."

Poulos is in touch with eight Syriac Orthodox monks living in Mar Mattai (St. Matthew), a monastery on a mountainside less than five kilometers from Bashiqa. "I've called them several times and they hear the sound of bombs. From the monastery they can see that a lot of bombing and fighting is going on. Nobody can go there now, but I hope it will be retaken soon."

The battle was not immediately affecting the monastery (which also houses three displaced families). "We have no problems, but we are watching for the future what will happen."

However, other Iraqi Christians who have moved far from home expressed no desire to return—because some of their Muslim neighbors had sympathized with IS. Rev. Aphram Ozan, a Syriac Orthodox priest in London who fled Mosul in 2011 after his family home was attacked by extremists, said: "I don't think Christians will return to Mosul. In the beginning, the people of Mosul welcomed IS. We were let down by the people; they left us."

Rev. Khalil Jaar, a Catholic priest in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and a partner of World Vision, said "not one" of the 500 or so Moslawi refugee families for whom he is co-ordinating aid was considering returning to the area. He said if adequate protection were offered, some had said they might return briefly to sell their houses, but would then go to their new homes. "ISIS is finished but the mentality and spirit of ISIS lives on in the heart of so many people in Mosul," he said.

One Christian former resident of Mosul in his early 30s recalled that increasing levels of extremism had strained his friendships with Muslims, even before 2003. "Growing up, I had friends who were Muslim. We played together and ate together and their parents treated us as though we were their children. But when some of them got to about 16 or 17, something changed. Maybe they had learnt something from the Quran or from the mosque—they changed and became more extreme, which made a gap between us. They became more extreme than their parents."

Suha Rassam, a Chaldean Catholic from Mosul and author of Christianity in Iraq, said that among her Iraqi Christian friends and relatives, "everybody is excited that Mosul is being liberated." But she added: "Although there are no more Christians in Mosul, I am still concerned about the Muslim population there, that they may not suffer too much and there is no slaughtering of the Sunni." However, she expressed concern that the presence of Kurdish and Turkish forces in the Nineveh Plains around Mosul could lead to both powers making territorial claims there. Extremism took hold in Mosul partly as a reaction against Kurdish expansionism, she said. "Even once Mosul is liberated, we can still expect a lot of trouble. It's not good for the unity of Iraq," she said.  

Christians and others suspect that the aim of the Kurdistan Regional Government is to earn political capital. Some voiced fears that because some Iraqi qualifications are not recognized there and government jobs require Kurdish-speakers, Arab Christians impoverished by their displacement could find themselves subjected to a "Kurdification" process.

One Christian former resident of Mosul whose family fled to Kurdistan said: "For all of history, the Kurds have been killing us, until now. They're trying to put on a good face; they want to liberate themselves from Iraq and show they are better than Iraq. But there's no future for Christianity in Kurdistan: my parents don't speak Kurdish, and because my nephews aren't Kurdish they aren't allowed to go to state school there."

But Poulos said he already knows what he will do if it's ever possible to go back to Bashiqa: "The first thing I will do is go to the church. If the church is not damaged and I can go in, I will pray. After that we will check how much damage is done to the church and to the houses. What needs to be done, what needs rebuilding?" 

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor.

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Christian Woman Accused of Blasphemy Does the Unthinkable - ASIF AQEEL/WORLD WATCH MONITOR CHARISMA NEWS

Christian Woman Accused of Blasphemy Does the Unthinkable

 5/27/2016 ASIF AQEEL/WORLD WATCH MONITOR  charisma news

Sonia Gill (left), 23, with Mary Gill, a member of the Punjab Assembly. (World Watch Monitor)

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A young Pakistani Christian woman accused of blasphemy chose not to flee from her home, so that her Christian neighbors wouldn't be targeted in her absence.

The accusations against Sonia Gill, 23, were eventually withdrawn, but not before she had refused to leave the "Christian Town" settlement near Gujrat.

Dozens of Pakistanis have been murdered and Christian settlements attacked after blasphemy accusations. In all recent examples, Christians fled their homes in the wake of the accusations, but Gill refused to do so, despite angry protestations outside her home.

"If I flee, what would happen to my Christian neighbors and their houses?" she said. 

The accusation came less than a month after another Christian was accused of blasphemy in the village of Chak 44, just 100km away. On 16 May, an angry mob of about 70 people gathered outside Gill's house, led by Muslim cleric Khubaib Jalali, who used to live in Mandi Bahauddin, the nearest city to Chak 44.

At least 150 Christian families live in Christian Town, which has three churches.

How events unfolded

Gill's neighbor, Sharjila Komal, known as "Poma", accused her of using an advertising banner bearing the name of Prophet Muhammad as a floor covering. But Gill said the banners bore only the names of politicians and that her neighbor had another motive for the accusation.

"About three years ago, Poma's sister-in-law eloped with my cousin, Khalid," Gill said. "A police case was registered against Khalid, but the matter was settled after the woman returned. But that is why Poma had a grudge against us.

"Poma stitches clothes and lives next door to us. That morning, she came to our home to say that my niece's uniform had been stitched and could be picked up from her at any time. She saw an advertising banner spread on the floor, which had pictures of politicians and their names. My brother, Shaukat, has a keen interest in politics. These banners were used in November last year, during local elections, and now they were of no use, so we were using them to cover the floor."

Shaukat Gill added: "It was about 8 p.m., when about 70 people reached our home and demanded that the banner 'bearing sacred Islamic names' be handed over to them. I invited the prominent persons – who were about 18 in number – to come in and inspect the banners they believed bore the sacred name of the Prophet.

"After seeing the banners, these angry protestors said that they were not satisfied and that they would consult among themselves in the nearby mosque."

As the mob departed to discuss the matter at Mosque Gulzar-e-Habib, Shaukat Gill called the police.

"I suspected that the mob would return and may attack us," said Gill, who works as a driver in Gujrat. "The police arrived in a short while and brought the situation under control. In the presence of the police, banners were once again shown for examination, but nothing blasphemous was found."

However, Jalali filed a complaint against the Gills at the local police station and asked for a case to be registered under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The situation remained tense the following morning.

"Christian girls who returned from school told us that they heard in the street that a protest would again be taken out," Sonia Gill explained. "Poma said that she would go to any extent to teach me a lesson. I told her that nothing could take place without the will of my God. Several Christians and Muslims suggested that I should flee the place, but I said that if I did, angry protestors would harm other Christians and their property. Whatever they want to do, they should do it to me and not to others."

Accusation withdrawn

Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper reported that Sonia Gill had "begged pardon", even though the police said she was "innocent".

"My friends Mushtaq Butt and Allah Rakha Sahotra tirelessly worked with various communities in the city," said Shaukat Gill. "Although we were still very much worried, we believed that God would do a miracle. The next day after the incident, Butt told me that the matter had been resolved."

He added that Butt had been asked to swear on the Qur'an that the Gills hadn't committed blasphemy and would never do so. Butt stated this on oath, after which all accusations were dropped.

The cleric officially withdrew his complaint, writing the following statement: "It is submitted that I [the speaker] in the Gulzar-e-Madina Mosque. I had earlier submitted an application against Shaukat Gill and others regarding committing blasphemy against the Prophet. I have investigated the matter. No occurrence of blasphemy could be verified. As for now, I don't seek any legal action on my application."

"The situation of law and order is under control and the family is living peacefully in their home," said local policeman Ghulam Abbas Dogar.

Emergency hotline agreed

Punjab parliamentarian Mary Gill told World Watch Monitor that after hearing about the incident, she had travelled to meet the Gills and other local Christians. She then reported the case to the district police.

"The police have played a very crucial role in restoring law and order in both instances of blasphemy accusations in Mandi Bahauddin and Gujrat," she said. "It is very encouraging that at least in this instance Sonia did not have to flee the situation.

"As the second blasphemy accusation in less than a month surfaced in the same area, I directly informed the Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, about the situation and then went to ensure the safety of the Christians.

"On the instructions of the Chief Minister, the matter was discussed in a high-powered cabinet meeting on 19 May.

"I suggested establishing a minorities' protection cell, where quick information about such incidents could be provided and law-enforcement agencies could be mobilized to deal with such situations. I am happy that the cabinet meeting decided on establishing a cell that could deal with such untoward situations." 

This article originally appeared on World Watch Monitor. 

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'Indispensable' Ancient Church Shaken By World Violence - WORLD WATCH MONITOR CHARISMA NEWS

The Virgin Mary Church is 'indispensable' to Christianity. (World Watch Monitor)

'Indispensable' Ancient Church Shaken By World Violence

2/2/2016 WORLD WATCH MONITOR  charisma news

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One of the oldest churches in the world sustained damage last week in the intensified fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists.

Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed a portion of the wall surrounding the Virgin Mary Church in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on 28 Jan. The Syriac Orthodox church is 1,700 years old.

Fr. Yusuf Akbulut, the priest of the church, was sheltered with his family at his home, located on church grounds, during the attack.

Violence has engulfed Diyarbakir's Sur district, the location of the church, since early December. The government issued an evacuation order on 26 Jan. due to pitched street battles between armed militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Turkish forces.

Fr. Akbulut, who has overseen the church for 23 years, initially refused to evacuate. He and his wife remained in the building until 28 Jan., saying he feared the church would be levelled in an aerial bombardment if left empty.

"We wouldn't have left the church. But when we looked [on the street] and saw that land mines and rockets were exploding non-stop, we knew that we couldn't stay," he told World Watch Monitor. "Our house was shaking and we thought it would collapse."

The power, electricity, and water were cut off. It was time to flee.

Fr. Akbulut dialed 155, the police emergency line. He was told that his neighbourhood was a no-go area, barricaded off to civil authorities. The operator gave him instructions on how to escape. They stepped out on the street cautiously, with Fr. Akbulut waving a white flag. Nobody was there.

Whole buildings were collapsed, reduced to piles of rubble. "It was like a war zone," he said.

Fr. Akbulut and his family are staying in a hotel for the foreseeable future. Ongoing clashes in the church's neighbourhood prevent their return.

But controversy has followed him. He has fended off reports from the Turkish media that his church had indirect involvement with the PKK.

Turkish newspapers claimed on 30 Jan. that a cache of ammunition and explosives was found on the site of Virgin Mary Church. Fr. Akbulut said that he knew nothing of this cache while he was there, and that it was likely deposited after he fled.

Syriac leaders blasted the reports for insinuating that their church could have any link to violent terrorism.

"We know the goals of these reports, which are hateful and completely made up," announced Evgin Turker, president of the Federation of Syriac Foundations. "After the news came out, threats against us started to rain down."

Turkish Protestant church leaders have condemned the PKK violence, raging for the past two months, issuing a joint call for the state to show justice and mercy to its citizens. In early January, a 12-person delegation came to Diyarbakir to issue a statement calling on both sides to seek a peaceful solution.

"We came to beg all parties to take steps towards peace to escape from this spiral of violence," said Ihsan Ozbek, leader of Turkey's Association of Protestant Churches. The pastors met with the district governor, Huseyin Aksoy, and Diyarbakir mayor, Gultan Kisanak.

The violence in Diyarbakir has engulfed other Christian fellowships. Members of Diyarbakir Protestant Church, located directly across the street from the Virgin Mary Church, couldn't hold regular services in their building for two months.

They met in an alternative site throughout the winter but resumed their meetings in the church three weeks ago. When the attacks started last Wednesday, three members of the church in the building immediately fled. Following the advice of the Turkish security forces, they also waved white flags.

Protestant pastor Ahmet Guvener, a friend of Akbulut, called the priest repeatedly to convince him to flee the neighbourhood.

"The bombs started going off every hour. We called Father Yusuf multiple times to try to get him and his wife to leave," Guvener told World Watch Monitor.

Guvener and Fr. Akbulut both said none of the attacks specifically targeted their churches, which are caught in the ongoing violence between the Turkish military and the PKK.

Fierce fighting has escalated across southeastern Turkey since the end of a two-year ceasefire in July 2015. Youth members of the PKK declared self-rule over large parts of Sur, digging trenches and building barricades to keep authorities out, according to Al-Monitor.

A military statement in the official Anadolu Agency said Turkish forces have so far killed 500 PKK fighters in the southeastern town of Cizre and 149 in Sur since December.

According to the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), the government has imposed curfews on many predominantly Kurdish towns and cities. To date, at least 161 civilians, including dozens of children, have died in the violence.

An 'indispensable' holy site for Orthodox Christians

Fr. Akbulut was insistent that he stay in the church as long as possible, even at the risk of his own life. He considers the church indispensable for his congregation, and for Syriac Orthodox Christianity at large.

"I would not be able to live with myself if I abandoned the church," Fr. Akbulut told the Assyrian International News Agency. "It is a symbol for us Assyrians and a symbol for all Christianity. This is a holy place."

The church is of enormous importance to Eastern Orthodoxy, having produced theologians and patriarchs in the early centuries of Christianity. It holds relics such as a piece of the cross and the bones of the apostle Thomas.

The Virgin Mary Church was recently renovated with funds collected from the Syriac diaspora in Europe. Artisans and masons restored the church's mosaics, hand-carved walnut tree doors, stone and brick walls, and silver lanterns.

Fr. Akbulut leads a congregation of 40 members. He speaks Syriac, a language closely related to Aramaic, the language of Jesus and his disciples.

The congregation represents a tiny remnant of Syriac Christianity, an ancient Eastern Rite Church still found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.

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