Christians in Sudan, South Sudan Facing Death and Detention
KHARTOUM, SUDAN (Worthy News)– Christians in Sudan and newly created South Sudan face possible detention, beatings and even death amid a "deteriorating humanitarian situation" with thousands of people being killed this year alone, aid workers and Christians said in statements obtained by Worthy News Sunday, January 22.
"Jonglei State in South Sudan…severe inter-tribal warfare has caused an estimated 3,000 deaths and displaced over 100,000 people in the last two weeks," reported Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which has been investigating the situation.
The region was reportedly a disaster zone by President Salva Kiir. "Tensions over cattle-raiding are common between tribal groups, However the violence in Jonglei constitutes the worst internal violence since South Sudan gained its independence," from Sudan in July 2011, CSW added.
The troubles have been linked to religious tensions, with Sudan known as mainly Muslim and Arabic-speaking, while South Sudan is more indigenously African in race, culture, and religion, with Christian influences and a perceived Western orientation.
Bible-thumping on Bourbon Street at night barred by ordinance
That sentence, almost at the end of the eight-page ordinance, said: "It shall be prohibited for any person or group of persons to loiter or congregate on Bourbon Street for the purpose of disseminating any social, political or religious message between the hours of sunset and sunrise."
Although the law, sponsored by Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, spelled out the justification for the crackdown on aggressive panhandlers, it offered no explanation for the blanket ban on letting people assemble on Bourbon Street at night to voice their views on politics or religion.
When someone complained about the law this week, however, it was not to challenge it as an infringement on First Amendment freedoms. Instead, former mayoral candidate Leo Watermeier complained to Palmer and Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson in public emails that religious demonstrators, sometimes with large signs and bullhorns, have been showing up on Bourbon Street on Friday and Saturday nights, yet police have taken no action against them.
A judge in Detroit has ruled that the decision by police in neighboring Dearborn to arrest a Christian pastor who wanted to hand out Christian tracts at the city’s Arab fest in 2009 will cost the city some $100,000.
That’s the decision following a request from the pastor’s attorneys that the losing side in the First Amendment argument over expressing religious perspectives on city streets be required to pay them for their work on behalf of Christian Pastor George Saieg.
Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen said his recommendation for fees and costs totaling $103,401.96 be awarded in the case that was handled by attorney Robert J. Muise.
Muise, at the time, was with the Thomas More Law Center, and the fees will go to that organization.
‘Obey the Constitution!’: Atheists Announce Lawsuit Against Montana Jesus Statue
2/1/12
On Tuesday, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) heralded a U.S. Forest Service decision to renew a lease for land housing a Jesus statue on a Montana mountain as "a significant victory." But just hours later, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an infamous church-state separatist group, announced that it will be suing to seek the removal of the statue's "unconstitutional" presence.
In a press release posted on the FFRF's web site, the group's co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, railed against the decision to allow the religious relic, which serves as a World War II memorial, and pledged to take the battle to the courts. The action to let it stay, she says, shows preference for Christianity and is unlawful.
"A federal agency should not hold a vote on whether to obey the Constitution!" said Gaylor. "The U.S. Forest Service has unlawfully misused federal land owned by all of us to further Christianity in general, and Roman Catholicism in particular. This diminishes the civil and political standing of nonreligious and non-Christian Americans, and shows flagrant governmental preference for religion and Christianity."
City faces more penalties for arresting Christians
Judge gives green light to trial on civil-rights violations
2/8/12
A federal judge in Michigan has decided to allow a civil-rights claim against the city of Dearborn by four Christians arrested at the city’s Arab festival to move forward.
It was just days ago when WND reported that a Detroit judge had awarded some $100,000 in attorney’s fees in another case of a Christian who was arrested at the festival.
In that case, the city was told to pay the fees on behalf of Christian Pastor George Saieg, who had been arrested at the 2009 event. Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen said his recommendation was for fees and costs totaling $103,401.96 to be awarded in the case that was handled by attorney Robert J. Muise.
Muise, at the time, was with the Thomas More Law Center, and the fees will go to that organization.
Saudis Pressure Christian Prisoners to Convert to Islam
2/8/12
Saudi Arabian officials sent a Muslim preacher to pressure Christian prisoners into converting to Islam, according to International Christian Concern (ICC).
Saudi Arabia arrested 29 Christian women and six Christian men, all Ethiopian citizens, on Dec. 15 after they held a prayer meeting in Jeddah.
“The Muslim preacher vilified Christianity, denigrated the Bible and told us that Islam is the only true religion. The preacher told us to convert to Islam. When the preacher asked us, we didn’t deny about our Christian faith. I was so offended with her false teachings that I left the meeting,” said one of the female prisoners who spoke to ICC in a telephone interview from Briman jail in Jeddah.
The Muslim preacher stated that she was sent by officials to teach the prisoners about Islam. This is the first time a Muslim preacher has been sent to the prison. The Christian prisoner expressed fear that the teachings would incite the Muslim prisoners held in Briman to harass and even attack the Christians.
China Increasing Crackdown on Christianity, Group Claims
Monday, February 6, 2012 (4:18 am)
BEIJING, CHINA (Worthy News)– Chinese authorities have stepped up their "longstanding opposition to Christianity" in China last year, an influential human rights group said in comments monitored by Worthy News.
In its annual report, U.S.-based China Aid Association (CAA) cited figures that it said "showed a dramatic worsening of government persecution of Christians and churches."
Those statistics included "a 131.8 percent increase" in the number of Christians detained for their religious beliefs. "This trend of worsening persecution has persisted for the past six years," the group said, adding that Christians were not the only target.
"In the year just ended, China's Communist regime has succeeded in creating an atmosphere of terror among the Chinese people — throughout the country but particularly in Beijing — by skirting the nation's judicial system to punish its own citizens, in violation of the nation's laws, through abduction, forced
disappearance, torture, mentally and physically destructive abuse, treating family members as guilty-by-association, etc. In 2011, more than 100 influential lawyers and human rights activists — both Christians and non-Christians — had "disappeared," or been "tortured, put under surveillance or sentenced," the report said.
A "new government practice" in 2011 was targeting churches and individuals who, CAA said, "were significantly impacting society". Among those targeted was the 1,000-member Shouwang Church in Beijing, which has been holding outdoors services after government interference made it impossible for them to buy or lease a meeting space.
Additionally, leading legal activists, including constitutional law expert Fan Yafeng, has been under house arrest since December 2010 while award-winning human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who "disappeared" into official custody for 20 months, was sent to a remote prison in far western China to serve a three-year sentence.
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