Prayer
Requests
Prayer
Requests
October
23, 2007 (Compass Direct News) – A pastor in Argentina
has received threatening letters and had posters of his face displayed in
Quilmes after the city’s mayor closed down the congregation’s newly
constructed ministry center. The Rev. Raul David Caballero said the closure
for alleged building code violations in March was part of a harassment
campaign mounted against him for exposing corruption in the administration
of Sergio Villordo. The pastor of the
1,200-member Church of the Encounter is also editor-in-chief of Perspectiva
Sur, which has published articles critical of Villordo.
Church of the Encounter has appealed the closure decision, but Caballero
said a prompt resolution is unlikely as Villordo
controls the municipal court.
***
Photos of Raul David Cabellero and the
unfinished ministry center are
available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and
transmittal.
**********
ANTI-CHRISTIAN
RUMOR HELPS FUEL ATTACKS
October
16 (Compass Direct News) – The rumor that evangelists
offer people money to convert to Christianity in Bangladesh is the rationale
for violence against Christians not just from Muslims, but from Buddhists
who make up less than 1 percent of the population. Subash
Mondol, a supervisor of the Christian Life
Bangladesh (CLB) “Jesus Film” team in Khagrachori
district, told Compass that in early September tribal Buddhist villagers
decided to kidnap a CLB worker after hearing a rumor that he had received
money for converting. Finding no money on Cinku Marma,
they instead assaulted him with a jungle knife on September 6, slashing his
hand, forehead and ear. In Nilphamari district,
where 10 of 42 converts from Islam were brutally beaten in June, Muslim
missionaries are helping to spread the conversion-for-pay rumor. And a
district official recently summoned pastor Sanjoy
Roy, accusing him of offering financial incentives and ordering him stop
evangelizing. He also forced
**********
CHRISTIAN
ATTORNEYS TORTURED, ARRESTED
October
4 (Compass Direct
News) – China’s crackdown on religious freedom advocates ahead of the
Beijing Olympics extended to two Christian human rights attorneys the past
two weekends. Attorney Li Heping released a
statement saying a group of men ordered him to stop practicing law,
beat him and struck him with electric batons for nearly five hours on
Saturday night (September 29). The previous Saturday (September 22),
Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng
and his family were reportedly arrested a day after he sent an open letter
to the U.S. Congress listing human rights abuses. Gao
has been under house arrest since his December 2006 conviction for
“inciting subversion,” serving a sentence of three years with five years
probation for his human rights defense work. Attorney Li
said the men covered his head with a cloth bag and took him to a
basement in a
**********
ISLAMISTS
JOIN CASE AGAINST CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY
October
10 (Compass Direct News) – Conservative Islamic lawyers
came out in support of the Egyptian government last week at the opening
court hearing of a Muslim convert to Christianity. In a move that has caused
national uproar, former Muslim Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy
is suing
***
A photograph of Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy is
available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and
transmittal.
**********
BRIEFS:
RECENT INCIDENTS OF PERSECUTION
Karnataka,
October
2 (Compass
Direct News) – Hindu
extremists from the Bajrang
Dal on September 30 attacked and
injured Christians during a worship service in Kodlipet
in Somwarpet taluk, Kodagu
district, Karnataka. Dr. Sajan K. George of the
Global Council of Indian Christians said that the extremists, armed with
iron rods and pipes, barged into the
Madhya
Pradesh –
Hindu
villagers beat a pastor and filed a complaint against him, his wife and four
other Christians, accusing them of conversion by “allurement” on
September 29 in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh
state. Police arrested pastor Subhash Chouhan
of the Indian Evangelical Team, his wife, their underage children and the
four others under the state anti-conversion law and several other sections
of the Indian Penal Code. The Christians, from a church in Sarai
village in Nalsa area of Dhar
district, were remanded to judicial custody and released on bail two days
later, October 1. “The attack took place when the Christians were in the
house of a local villager, who was healed from a disease after Pastor Chouhan
prayed for him,” a local source told Compass. “This villager had also
invited his relatives to meet with his Christian friends, and they were all
watching a film based on Jesus’ life.” The source added that those
watching the film had invited the Christians and had no objections. “The
police did not file a complaint against the attackers, but promptly arrested
the Christians on a frivolous complaint.” The source said the complainants
were not present in the house and therefore had no legal standing to accuse
the Christians of conversion by allurement. Police are investigating the
case. – VA
Punjab
– A drunk man and his family went to his neighbor’s
house, where a Christian meeting was underway, and shot at one of the
believers on September 27 in Lobaniawali area in
Chhattisgarh
– Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh on September 23
disrupted Christian worship at Sanjay Nagar, Kanker
district, Chhattisgarh. Arun Pannalal,
general secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, said that about 20
Hindu extremists accompanied by around 25 local residents surrounded the
church as independent pastor Pradyuman Meshram
was preaching, began shouting anti-Christian slogans and demanded that the
worship stop. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global
Council of Indian Christians told Compass, “The extremists barged into the
prayer hall, walked up to Meshram and slapped
and punched him. As he fell to the ground, the extremists began kicking him
while continuously cursing him, alleging he was involved in conversion
activities.” Extremists also damaged congregants’ motorbikes parked
outside. Police detained the extremists, but a huge crowd gathered at the
police station to accuse Meshram of forcible
conversion, George said. Only by late evening did police register a First
Information Report filed by Meshram. At press
time, however, no arrests have been made. – NC
Orissa
– A court in the western state of Orissa on September 22 sentenced four
people to life imprisonment for killing a Catholic priest with arrows in Mayurbhanj
district eight years ago. Those sentenced included Dara
Singh, who in September 2003 had been sentenced to death for killing
Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two
young sons by burning them alive on January 22, 1999 in Orissa state’s Manoharpur
area, reported The Hindustan Times.
The Khurda sessions court also sentenced to life
Jadunath Mahanto, Chema
Ho and Rajkishore Majanto
for killing Fr. Arul Doss on September 1, 1999 in Mayurbhanj’s
Jamubani village. The four had been convicted by
the court on September 11, while 17 other accused were acquitted for a lack
of evidence. Singh told the media that he would challenge the court’s
verdict in the state high court. In the
Karnataka
– A 38-year-old Christian woman and her guest were attacked by Hindu
neighbors in her house on September 20 in Banaswadi
area of
Maharashtra
– A local Hindu extremist threatened a Christian woman with rape and
murder on September 18 near an ordnance factory in Jawahar
Nagar area in
Uttar
Pradesh
– Hindu extremists from the Bajrang
Dal and Vishwa
Hindu Parishad on September 16 burned
down the house church of pastor Virendra Singh
in Barauli village (under Madiaon
police station),
Andhra
Pradesh
– Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, and Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council)
and its youth wing, Bajrang
Dal, on September 9 disrupted the
Sunday worship of
Kerala
– At least 15 extremists of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked six
Christians on September 4 near Parasuram temple
in Tiruvallam area of Thiruvanandapuram,
capital of Kerala state. With sharp weapons, the extremists assaulted
Christians identified only as Jose, George, Santhosh,
Bijoy, Jaykrish and Hari,
who received serious injuries, said Paul Ciniraj
of the Kerala-based Salem Voice Ministries. On September 6, police managed
to arrest two RSS extremists identified only as Sreekumar
and Lalu for the attack. Sreekumar
is in charge of training the local RSS cadre, and Lalu
is the leader of the Edayar area unit of the
organization. A court remanded them to judicial custody on charges of
attempted murder. Rights groups say Hindu extremists in the state have been
trying to create religious tensions to help politically advance Hindu
nationalistic parties. – VA
**********
‘ANTI-CONVERSION’
LAW IN FORCE IN 4TH STATE
October
8 (Compass Direct News) – The Congress Party government
in Himachal Pradesh state has brought into force its “anti-conversion”
law six months after the governor gave assent to the controversial bill
regulating religious conversions. The move brings the number of states with
anti-conversion laws in
**********
BRIEFS:
RECENT INCIDENTS OF PERSECUTION
Andhra
Pradesh, October
18 (Compass Direct News) –
Hindu extremists on October 12 attacked a group of eight Christians who were
distributing gospel tracts in Tiriyani village, Medak
district, Andhra Pradesh. Lion Francis, regional coordinator of the Global
Council of Indian Christians, told Compass that 15 to 20 extremists
approached the Dalit Christian youths and grabbed the tracts from some of
them. “The extremists began loudly abusing the believers and cursing the
Christian faith,” Francis said. “They tore up the tracts in their hands
and flung them on the road and stomped upon them, and they slapped and
repeatedly hit them.” Pastor Koiswara Naik
and Sushanla Naik
later took the eight Christians to a private medical facility for treatment,
Francis said. – NC
Bihar
– At least 20 Hindu extremists from the Bajrang
Dal, youth wing of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council),
on October 11 stormed a Christian gathering, vandalized the hall and beat
five Christians in Chhapra area of
Karnataka
– About 15 people led by extremists of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council),
tried to pressure a Christian worker to “reconvert” to Hinduism and
dragged him to the police station, where he was detained on charges of
“forced conversion” on October 11 in Karnataka state’s
Madhya
Pradesh –
Three Hindu teachers of a Christian school in Madhya Pradesh state’s Harda
district on October 11 beat the school director and filed a complaint
against him charging that school management was converting pupils.
“Teachers Krishnan Kumar, C.M. Chitra and Savitri
of the Holy Faith School in the headquarters of Harda
district filed a complaint against school manager Samuel Matthew, accusing
him of conversions,” constable Jagdish Sharma
of the Harda police station told Compass. Sharma
added that Matthew lodged a counter-complaint saying the teachers beat him.
The constable said police were investigating the complaints and that no one
had been arrested. A representative of the Christian Legal Association told
Compass that the teachers were new appointees under a probation period. They
had promised the administration that they would produce original
certificates as part of their application process but failed to do so.
Consequently, the school dismissed the teachers and, to take revenge, they
beat the director and filed a false complaint against him. – VA
Chhattisgarh
– A mob believed to be Hindu extremists associated with the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) launched
attacks on two Christian schools for declining to observe a holiday on an
October 10 Hindu festival in
Karnataka
– More than 100 extremists launched an attack on Christian workers on
October 7 in Mayasandra village in Turuvekere
Taluka of Karnataka state’s Tumkur
district. The attack took place as 31-year-old pastor P.M. Simon from the Vishwa
Vani Christian radio ministry was
conducting Sunday worship in a house, said Dr. Sajan
K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians. The extremists beat
Pastor Simon and the local coordinator of the radio ministry, who requested
anonymity, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., all the while accusing them of
forcibly converting Hindu villagers, added George. Pastor Simon, who
received serious injuries, was admitted to the
Chhattisgarh
– Pastor Shynu Patel and a Christian
identified only as Shagundas have been jailed on
false charges of intent to insult Hindu religion and forced conversion,
according to Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global
Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). Patel, 27, had convened a three-day
prayer and fasting meeting at the house of Shagundas
in Murlar village, Kanker
district, Chhattisgarh. On the final day, October 5, as the eight-member
congregation was worshipping, a mob of around 35 extremists allegedly
belonging to Jan Sevak
(People’s Service) barged into Shagundas’
home, dragged him and Patel to the village panchayat
(local village council) and made false allegations of forcible conversion,
George said. The extremists shoved both men into a tractor and drove off to
the Keskal
police station. Pastor Sam Mathew, GCIC regional coordinator told Compass
the extremists produced false witnesses to testify that Patel tried to lure
him with an offer of 1,000 rupees
every month to tell people about Jesus. “The false witness also alleged
that Shynu made derogatory remarks about the
Hindu deities,” Mathew said. Police arrested Patel and Shagundas
after the extremists filed
charges of injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to
insult the religion of any class, lawyer Aslam
Khan told Compass. At press time, they were being held in Jagdalpur
District Central jail. – NC
Maharashtra
– Hindu extremists thrashed independent pastors Amol
Patole and Philip Lokhande
on October 4 in Devgaon village, Ahmednagar,
Karnataka
– A group of about 20 Hindu extremists beat two Christian workers
conducting a prayer meeting on October 4 in Mangalwadi
village in Holenaresipura
area of Karnataka state’s Hassan district. The extremists barged
into the Jnanamuni Memorial Church at 8:30 p.m.,
disrupted the prayer meeting and attacked the Christian workers, identified
only as Sudhir and Isaac from India Village
Ministries, and accused them of forcible conversions, said Dr. Sajan
K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians. The victims were
rushed to the
Uttar
Pradesh – Hindu extremists from the Bajrang
Dal
on October 2 disrupted a Christian prayer meeting in Nagara,
near
Madhya
Pradesh – About 20 Hindu extremists disrupted a
Christian meeting and roughed up a pastor belonging to the
Orissa
– Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (National Volunteer Corps or RSS), beat two Christians in
two separate incidents and got one of them arrested under Orissa state’s
anti-conversion law on October 2 in Kendrapara
district. In the first incident, at least 12 RSS extremists attacked an
independent pastor, Pradip Hialo,
while he was distributing Christian tracts at about 3:30 p.m. at the main
bus stand of Kendrapara. Dr. Sajan
K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians told Compass they also
accused the pastor of forcible conversions and insulted Jesus with
vulgarities. After beating Pastor Hialo, they
took him to the police station and filed charges under the state
anti-conversion law. He was released on bail later the same day. In the
second incident, the same attackers telephoned pastor
Raghab Digal of the
Orissa Follow-Up organization and tricked him into meeting them, beating him
upon his arrival. Among other head injuries, Digal
received a deep cut near his eyebrows. Police registered a complaint against
the attackers, and an investigation was underway. – VA
**********
BISHOP
NEGOTIATES FOR KIDNAPPED PRIESTS
October
15 (Compass Direct News) – An Iraqi bishop said today
that he is negotiating for the release of two Christian clergymen kidnapped
in
***
Photographs of Father Mazen Ishoa
and Father Pius Affas are available
electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
**********
RANSOM
DEADLINE LOOMS FOR KIDNAPPED PRIESTS
October
19 (Compass Direct News) – Kidnappers have given Iraqi
church leaders only 24 more hours to raise ransom money for the release of
two priests, a church leader said today. Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile
Georges Casmoussa said that an independent
source had confirmed the two priests, kidnapped last week, were alive.
“Someone phoned somewhere and he affirmed to us that they are alive,”
said the
**********
TWO
KIDNAPPED CLERGYMEN RELEASED
October
22 (Compass Direct News) – Two Iraqi priests kidnapped
more than a week ago said they returned to their Mosul parish in good health
yesterday morning and immediately celebrated mass. Captors freed Father Pius
Affas and Father Mazen
Ishoa at an undisclosed location in
**********
Israel/Gaza
BIBLE
SOCIETY BOOKSTORE MANAGER MURDERED
October
8 (Compass Direct News) – Police found Christian leader Rami
Ayyad murdered early yesterday morning near the
Christian bookstore that he managed in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. He
had been shot in the head and had multiple stab wounds. Unknown individuals
abducted Ayyad, 30, as he closed The Teacher’s
Bookshop at 4:30 p.m. Saturday (October 6). Muslim extremists have
repeatedly threatened the bookshop, operated by the Palestinian Bible
Society; it was bombed in April after previous threats. Ayyad
is survived by two children and his pregnant wife, Pauline.
***
Photos of Rami Ayyad
and the Palestinian Bible Society bookstore are available
electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
**********
October
26 (Compass Direct News) – Rapid police and fire
department response to a blaze in a Western Jerusalem Baptist church averted
extensive damage from an act police believe is arson. Police have no
suspects. A church that once stood on the same land was destroyed by
ultra-right-wing Jewish arsonists in 1982. The rabbi of a Reform Jewish
congregation has offered its synagogue for Christian meetings.
***
Photographs of Pastor Charles Kopp and the
**********
October
11 (Compass Direct News) – Following a brutal government
sweep of suspected insurgents in July, a village church in Laos that once
had nearly 2,000 members has shrunk to only a few dozen daring to attend.
Most of its leaders are still either in prison or under house arrest.
Christian sources said only about 20 to 30 members of the previously
1,900-member Laos Evangelical Church in Ban Sai Jarern
village, Bokeo province in northwestern Laos,
are still meeting after authorities three months ago arrested 200 Hmong
Christians falsely accused of being separatist rebels. Many of those
arrested, including women and children, are still in prison, Christian
sources said, although estimates of the number detained were unavailable. At
the church, most of those still meeting are women and children. “The men
are either still in hiding for fear of being arrested, or are still
imprisoned or under house arrest, and many are
still fearful to come out of their homes to worship in church,” a source
said. Ban Sai Jarern
church members reported that no one from their congregation has had any
contact or communication whatsoever with separatist rebels.
**********
TEN
CHRISTIANS KILLED IN MUSLIM RAMPAGE IN
October
5 (Compass Direct News) – A Muslim rampage last week in
this town in the northern state of Kano resulted in the killing of 10
Christians and the destruction of nine churches, according to eyewitnesses.
Another 61 people were injured and more than 500 displaced in the September
28 disturbance, touched off when Muslim students of Government College-Tudun
Wada Dankadai, a public high school, claimed
that a Christian student had drawn a cartoon of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad,
on the wall of the school’s mosque. Rabiu Danbawa,
pastor of an area Evangelical Church of West Africa congregation, said he
stood about 500 meters from his church and parish home as it burned.
“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “I did not know the fate of
my wife and my children.” Danbawa said he went
to the police station, only to find the police dispersing the many
Christians who had run there to escape the attack. “We were told to leave,
as our safety could not be guaranteed,” he said, in tears. “Women and
children all scampered to the bush, only to be attacked by the Muslims who
had already hid themselves in the bush awaiting their Christian prey.”
***
Photos of victims, burned churches and refugees from the attack are
available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and
transmittal.
**********
ISLAMIC
COURT ENDORSES ABDUCTION OF GIRLS
October
9 (Compass Direct News) – It has been more than a year
since Allabe Kaku Chibok
lost his three daughters because he became a Christian – paradoxically, he
lost custody of them only after his ex-wife died. An Islamic court in this
city in the northern state of Born granted custody to Chibok’s
wife’s Muslim relatives after a chain of events that began in November
2004, when he allowed his daughters to attend the funeral service of their
mother; she had divorced him when he left Islam. The girls stayed for a week
with Muslim relatives at his former wife’s house, but when Chibok
arrived there to take them to school, he found that a retired female police
officer, Hajiya Maryam
Aliyu, had helped his ex-wife’s Muslim
relatives abduct them. On August 4, 2006, Borno
Upper Sharia Court I ruled that under Islamic law a non-Muslim father cannot
be a custodian to his children if the mother of his children is Muslim –
or, in this case, if the deceased mother’s relatives are Muslim.
***
A photo of Allabe Kaku
Chibok’s three daughters is available
electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
**********
MUSLIM
THREAT TO ATTACK CHURCH RAISES TENSIONS
October
10 (Compass
Direct News) – Militant Islamists in this city in the northern state of Borno
have sent three letters to a church warning that members would be attacked
in the next few days, raising tensions where 50 Christians were killed and
57 churches destroyed last year. Leaders of the Christian Association of
Nigeria told Compass that the letters were dropped onto the premises of the
3,000-member Church of the Brethren in
***
Photos of the Rev.
**********
TWO
CHRISTIANS MURDERED IN
October
22 (Compass Direct News) – One man has been killed with
a sword and another bludgeoned to death in this city in central northern
***
Photos of Henry Ogbaje, Sgt. Emmanuel Ogbaje,
Elder Saidu Dogo and
the Rev. Joshua Magaji are
available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and
transmittal.
**********
MUSLIM
OFFICIALS DISMISS CHRISTIANS FROM POSTS
October
24 (Compass Direct News) – Asabe
Ladagu, a Christian widow in this capital city
of
***
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the Rev. Paye Pama
are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and
transmittal.
**********
MUSLIMS
APOLOGIZE FOR ATTACK ON CHURCH
October
25 (Compass Direct News) – Muslims who attacked a
Pakistani church and declared religious war against Christians from mosque
minarets have apologized for their actions, human rights workers said. The
threats included demands that Christians of Gowindh,
a Punjabi village of 10,000, convert to Islam or “be prepared to fight or
die.” Muslims ended their boycott against trading with the 300 Christians.
This incident is the latest in a pattern of church attacks in which
perpetrators apologize and avoid facing charges.
***
Photographs of
**********
PRO-SHARIA
REBELS THREATEN CHRISTIANS
October
31 (Compass Direct News) – Islamic militants threatened
to bomb a Christian family for refusing to convert to Islam as fighting
between militants and government troops resumed in northwestern Pakistan
yesterday. Since July, followers of Muslim cleric Maulana
Fazlullah have worked to enforce Islamic law
(sharia)
in much of
**********
SUICIDE
BOMBER KILLS YOUTHS IN CHURCH
October
3 (Compass Direct News) – A suicide bomber in military
fatigues killed five young people at a church meeting last week in Khorfulus
in Sudan’s Upper Nile State. The man detonated a grenade on his belt after
entering an outdoor church meeting last Thursday evening (September 27).
Local authorities said a Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldier was
drunk and accidentally set off the grenade, but an SPLA major general
reportedly said the attack was meant to intimidate churches. Military
officials were unable to identify the bomber. The Rev. Joseph Maker Gordon,
acting secretary general of the Presbyterian Church in Sudan, told Compass
that witnesses said the man had walked up to a group of Christian youth who
were singing worship songs outside of a Sudan Interior Mission church
building. “Then he took out a match and began to smoke, and the children
heard a strange noise,” Rev. Gordon said. “Some children started to
gather around the man to see what was making the noise, and unfortunately
the bomb went off.”
**********
WIDOW
OF SLAIN WORKER: ‘A CROSS FOR ME EVERY DAY’
October
1 (Compass Direct News) – For
Semse Aydin, the
shock of the cruel murder of her husband Necati
last April still hits her every morning when she awakens. Equally
painful, she said, is knowing that her two children will grow up without
their father’s loving care and nurture. “Necati’s
absence is a cross for me every day,” she admitted. “It’s as if after
nine years of marriage and two children, God is saying to me, ‘I want him
back.’” Ten years ago, Necati Aydin’s
strict Muslim family had violently opposed his decision to become a
Christian. They literally kidnapped him when they learned of his pending
marriage, threatening both of them if he did not change his mind and come
back to Islam. “I was afraid for his life, and that he would renounce
Jesus,” Semse Aydin
said. “So I told the Lord I would give him up, that I would sacrifice our
marriage. I prayed that the Lord would just keep Necati
for Himself, not for me.”
***
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Aydin and their children are available
electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and transmittal.
**********
NEW
JUDGE PROLONGS CONVERTS’ TRIAL
October
4 (Compass Direct News) – A new judge has prolonged the
case of two Turkish converts to Christianity after his predecessor resigned
under pressure from the plaintiffs’ ultranationalist lawyer. Judge Metin
Tamirci on September 26 set the Christians’
next court date for November 29. Defendants Hakan
Tastan and Turan Topal
had hoped for a quick dismissal of charges of insulting “Turkishness”
after the state prosecutor said in July that there was no evidence against
them. Defense lawyer Haydar Polat
said that despite the change of judge and a new state prosecutor, he was
still 99 percent sure that his clients would be acquitted. “There is no
crime to be found, we’ll just have wait and see if the state prosecutor
agrees with us,” Polat said.
***
Photographs of Hakan Tastan,
Turan Topal, their
lawyers and ultranationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz
are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct News for pricing and
transmittal.
**********
THREATS,
VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS ON UPSWING
October
5 (Compass Direct News) – Turkish Protestants have
reported increasing attacks and threats in recent months despite claims by
President Abdullah Gul this week that Christians
in Turkey are not targeted. The threats have increased since two Turkish
Christian converts and a German Christian were tortured and killed at Zirve
Publishing House in
***
Photos of the
**********
**********
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