Christian victims of the 2007 Malatya massacre, from left, Necati Aydın, Uğur Yüksel, and Tilmann Ekkehart Geske.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 19 (Open Doors News) — Nineteen suspects accused of inciting the brutal 2007 murders of three Christians in eastern Turkey went on trial before Malatya’s Third Criminal Court in early September.

With the court’s acceptance in June of a third indictment in the case, known as the “Malatya Massacre” in the Turkish media, allegations against primarily military officials have finally been made public.

 “This indictment provides the first solid evidence that our military authorities officially assigned the named suspects to monitor and attack the Christians in Malatya,” Umut Sahin from the legal committee of the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches told Open Doors News.

The new 761-page indictment alleges that the attack by five young murderers who stabbed, tortured and slit the throats of two Turks and a German citizen in their Malatya office had been masterminded by Hursit Tolon, a retired general in Turkey’s 1^st Army Corps, and ultranationalist military officials in the Malatya gendarmerie.

According to the new indictment, the Zirve murders were part of the so-called Cage Action Plan hatched by military officials trying to undermine the AKP government through assassinations, threats and acts of terror against Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities.

Just two days before the Sept. 3 hearings began, Turkish authorities shocked the lawyers for the victims by abruptly replacing the two prosecutors, and two of the three judges, in the case, leaving only one member of the judicial panel familiar with the trial’s massive files:  presiding Judge Hayrettin Kisa.

Soldiers testified that the Malatya gendarmerie had been monitoring the handful of Christians in Malatya 24 hours a day, tapping their telephones and paying informers some 60 percent of their intelligence budget to collect data on their activities, sometimes in cooperation with police and secret intelligence officials.

And after the attack, the gendarmerie officers tapped the telephones of the victims’ families, lawyers and judges in the case, and then gave false documents and testimony to manipulate the trial, trying to portray the three murdered Christians as criminals linked with illegal groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the soldiers testified.

Hearings on the case will resume on Nov. 12, when Tolon and the remaining alleged perpetrators are scheduled to testify.

Perpetrators of Turkey’s ‘Malatya Massacre’ Put on Trial

Military officials accused of masterminding attack, manipulating investigation.

ISTANBUL, Sept. 19 (Open Doors News) — Nineteen suspects accused of inciting the brutal 2007 murders of three Christians in eastern Turkey went on trial before Malatya’s Third Criminal Court in early September.

With the court’s acceptance in June of a third indictment in the case, known as the “Malatya Massacre” in the Turkish media, allegations against primarily military officials have finally been made public.

“This indictment provides the first solid evidence that our military authorities officially assigned the named suspects to monitor and attack the Christians in Malatya,” Umut Sahin from the legal committee of the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches told Open Doors News.

The new 761-page indictment alleges that the attack by five young murderers who stabbed, tortured and slit the throats of two Turks and a German citizen in their Malatya office had been masterminded by a retired general in Turkey’s 1^st Army Corps and ultranationalist military officials in the Malatya gendarmerie. The gendarmerie is a law-enforcement arm of the military; It has jurisdiction outside of Turkey’s cities and towns.

Ret. Gen. Hursit Tolon, who was named as the prime suspect behind the killings, at the Zirve Christian Publishing House in Malatya, failed to appear during the six consecutive days of hearings that began Sept. 3. The 70-year-old former general sent the court a 10-day medical excuse from his prison cell.

Initially jailed in 2008 as a suspect in the alleged Ergenkon conspiracy, Tolon was accused of plotting to topple the ruling Justice and Peace Party (AKP) government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After his release in 2009 due to poor health, he was re-arrested in January 2012 on “serious suspicions of a criminal act.”

According to the new indictment, the Zirve murders were part of the so-called Cage Action Plan hatched by military officials trying to undermine the AKP government through assassinations, threats and acts of terror against Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities.

In the initial indictment, state prosecutors demanded three consecutive life sentences for the five killers, all apprehended at the scene of the crime.  When the presiding judge questioned them during the September hearings, several of the murder suspects insisted that they had no motive to overthrow the government and had in fact voted for the AKP.

Denying any acquaintance or links with Tolon and the other accused conspirators, defendant Emre Gunaydin declared, “We went on an expedition on behalf of Islam on our own to accomplish this event.”

A judiciary scandal?

Just two days before the Sept. 3 hearings began, Turkish authorities shocked the lawyers for the victims by abruptly replacing the two prosecutors, and two of the three judges, in the case, leaving only one member of the judicial panel familiar with the trial’s massive files:  presiding Judge Hayrettin Kisa.

“This has seriously damaged effective progress in the trial,” said Erdal Dogan, a lawyer for one of the victims. In particular, the two prosecutors who had worked on the new indictment for the past 1.5 years, examining the evidence and questioning witnesses and the accused in person, were taken off the case.

“Changing the court prosecutors has had an unbelievably negative impact on the case,” Sahin said.  “For six days, the accused suspects made incredible criticisms of the indictment, but the new prosecutor did not utter a single word for the whole six days!”

In response, the Council of Judges and Prosecutors stated that the Justice Ministry’s reassignment of the Malatya prosecutors and judges was a routine transfer, simply following recent legal reforms affecting the status of criminal courts.

But according to Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a lawyer for the victims, “This is a serious and really unacceptable scandal, concerning such a huge case. There are more than 40,000 pages in the attachments to this indictment alone!”

“Is it possible that the AKP government is uncomfortable with the conclusion of this case?” questioned Today’s Zaman columnist Orhan Oguz Gurbuz on Sept. 16. “The government must address these doubts and questions. Otherwise, it will undermine its own legitimacy and the pluralist/democratic identity that it has relied on since the beginning.”

Spying on Christians

After the new indictment was read out in court, six of the accused soldiers testified to what had been going on behind the scenes for at least a year before Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske were attacked and killed in their office on April 18, 2007. According to their testimony:

Under the local commander’s direction, the Malatya gendarmerie had been monitoring the handful of Christians in Malatya 24 hours a day, tapping their telephones and paying informers some 60 percent of their intelligence budget to collect data on their activities, sometimes in cooperation with police and secret intelligence officials.

And after the attack, the gendarmerie officers tapped the telephones of the victims’ families, lawyers and judges in the case, and then gave false documents and testimony to manipulate the trial, trying to portray the three murdered Christians as criminals linked with illegal groups like the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the soldiers testified.

On the witness stand, the soldiers told Judge Kisa that they refused to accept “any of the accusations” against themselves.

“I was obeying orders conveyed to me within the command-chain hierarchy,” Sgt. Adem Gedik said, defending his illegal surveillance within the Malatya city limits, which fall under jurisdiction of the police force, not the gendarmerie.

Hearings on the case will resume on Nov. 12, when Tolon and the remaining alleged perpetrators are scheduled to testify.

The key suspects include Col. Mehmet Ulger, Malatya’s gendarmerie commander at the time; Ruhi Polat, a theology instructor at the local Inonu University;  Maj. Haydar Yesil; and Ilker Cinar, an intelligence agent assigned by military officials to fake his conversion to Christianity, infiltrate the Turkish Protestants and then publicly “reconvert to Islam,” denouncing  Christians as a threat to national security.

END

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Copyright 2012 Open Doors News

Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.

For subscription information, contact: jeffth@opendoorsnews.org

• Claims that four Christians were refused the right to express beliefs at work to be rejected
• Those who disobey employers should ‘go and find another job’
• Hard line means that Government doesn’t support right to wear a cross at work

By STEVE DOUGHTY IN STRASBOURG

PUBLISHED: 11:39 EST, 4 September 2012 | UPDATED: 02:33 EST, 5 September 2012

Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons earlier this year that the right to wear the cross at work was 'an absolutely vital freedom'

Christians may have to sacrifice their jobs if they want to express their religion at work, government lawyers declared yesterday.

They urged human rights judges in Strasbourg to reject a landmark case brought by four Christians who said they suffered faith-based discrimination.

The state lawyers insisted workers are not entitled to wear a crucifix at work against the wishes of their employers – and if that is incompatible with their faith they ‘are free to resign’.

The hard line contrasts starkly with David Cameron telling the Commons in July that the right to wear the cross at work was ‘an absolutely vital freedom’.

He even pledged to change the law to ‘make clear that people can wear religious symbols at work.’

Last night the Government’s handling of the case was attacked by Christians for its ‘astonishing double standards’.

Government lawyers said the wearing of the crucifix was not a ‘scriptural requirement’ of Christianity, so employers had no obligation to recognise it.

But in a confrontation at the court yesterday, the Christians’ counsel said it was wrong they should have fewer rights than other faith groups just because they had a ‘tolerant’ religion.

The hearing at the European Court of Human Rights involved four test cases, two of which involve employees prevented from wearing a cross at work. Nadia Eweida’s row with British Airways led the airline to back down in 2006 and Shirley Chaplin who – after 30 years as a nurse – was told she could no longer wear her cross on duty for health and safety reasons.

Clarification Appended

Michael Salman and family

The Arizona pastor who is currently imprisoned for hosting regular Bible studies at his home may have to serve up to three years for violating his probation.

Michael Salman, an ordained pastor of Church of God in Christ and the founder of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Phoenix, appeared in court Monday on charges that he violated his probation by continuing to hold Bible studies on his 4.6 acre property with more than 12 people, and for failing to pay over $12,000 in fines. The Phoenix Municipal Court had earlier ruled that Salman was not to have more than 12 people at his home until he met the city’s building codes, fire codes and other safety codes.

“He was found guilty of violating that (12 people limit) today. So in two to four weeks supposedly the court will decide what they are going to do in terms of his violation,” said John Whitehead, Salman’s attorney and founding president of the legal group The Rutherford Institute, to The Christian Post after the Monday court hearing. “The prosecutor is arguing for more jail time.”

READ FACT SHEET FROM THE RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE

Whitehead noted that 15 to 20 people were meeting in Salman’s home for Bible study after the court’s order of a 12-persons limit. “[They brought him to court] to see if they are going to extend the 60 days in jail,” he said. “He is on three year probation, which means that he could get up to three years in jail.”

Last Monday, Salman began his 60-day jail sentence at Maricopa County Jail for hosting Bible studies twice a week in his home. A Phoenix court found him guilty of 67 code violations in connection to failing to comply to the city’s building, fire, safety, and zoning codes.

The city of Phoenix argues that Salman’s case is not about religious freedom but about public safety. In an interview with CP, the city prosecutor – or chief prosecutor – for Phoenix, Aaron J. Carreon-Ainsa, noted that five judges have looked at Salman’s case, including two U.S. district judges and an appellate judge, and have affirmed the conviction.

“We are interested in ensuring that people are provided a safe place in which they can worship,” said Carreon-Ainsa. “We don’t want a tragedy that we sometimes read about in third world countries where people are gathered for whatever purpose and they perish because of a fire or some other situation that they are not able to protect themselves [from]…”

READ FACT SHEET FROM THE CITY OF PHOENIX

Salman, who is a father of six, has been hosting Bible studies on his property for the past 7 years. The city of Phoenix began interacting with Salman about zoning concerns starting in 2006, when the Zoning Administrator informed him that his property was analogous to a church and therefore he should adjust his home to comply with the Zoning Ordinance. According to the City of Phoenix Prosecutor’s Office, the city has repeatedly asked Salman to comply with the safety codes and “he chose to ignore these requests for voluntary compliance prior to the commencement of any proceedings.”

But Brad Dacus, founding president of the Pacific Justice Institute – which has defended several home Bible study cases – weighed in and disagreed with the city’s argument.

“The city is dealing with a 5-acre parcel of land. Based on the information we have received, there are no bona fide health or safety concerns that have been brought to light,” said Dacus to CP on Tuesday. “There have been no injuries incurred by any individuals that have come to gather for this purpose. There are no imminent risks of injuries for anyone gathered for this religious purpose. And there are no bona fide nuisances that have arisen since its usage.

“This attempt by the city of Phoenix is an overbearing usage of their authority in a manner that is clearly not warranted.”

In a YouTube video, the Salmans give a tour of their large property, emphasizing that the dozens of cars that come to their home for the Bible study are parked behind their private gate on their property and not on the streets. A notable discrepancy is that while Salman says around 30 to 40 people usually gather at his home, the city says that up to 80 people with seating for a hundred is common. Salman and his attorney decry the city’s harsh punishments meted out over a home Bible study to be in violation of the defendant’s religious freedom.

Dacus also commented on the most recent court hearing, “To the extent to which the city of Phoenix has placed this limitation of only 12 people being able to meet in this home, such a narrow limitation is suspect as necessary and it seems arbitrary in terms of the number selected and as well as who they chose to enforce it.”

PJI recently successfully defended a local Christian Bible group meeting in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., that was vulnerable to a controversial city code that required all religious, fraternal or nonprofit organizations of three people or more to obtain a conditional-use permit for hosting meetings, including Bible studies. The couple hosting the Bible group faced a $300 fine for violating this code. PJI successfully convinced the city of San Juan Capistrano to adopt a new policy that now allows up to 40 people to meet in a private residence without a permit.

But the news is not as positive for Salman, who still faces a $12,180 fine and may have his 60-day jail sentence extended in a few weeks by the court.

Clarification:  July 17, 2012:  

An article on July 17, 2012, about an Arizona pastor who is currently serving a prison sentence for hosting a weekly Bible study held in a building that violated the city’s building safety codes originally reported that five judges found Michael Salman guilty.  Aaron J. Carreon-Ainsa of the City Prosecutor’s Office in Phoenix clarified that there was only one trial and the other judges reviewed the case and affirmed the conviction. 

READ: FEDERAL COURT ERODES RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS

The Turkish-Iranian Alliance That Wasn’t

Turkish PM Erdogan (left) with Iranian President Ahmadinejad last September. (Courtesy Reuters)

One of the most controversial elements of Turkish foreign policy has been the attempt by the Justice and Development party (AKP) to cultivate closer ties to Iran. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rapprochement with Tehran has raised concerns in Western capitals that Ankara is drifting away from the West. Differences over Iran’s nuclear program have heightened these fears. In defiance of the United States and other key NATO members, such as the United Kingdom and France, Turkey has downplayed the danger posed by Iran’s nuclear policy and attempt to elude constraints imposed by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. The most acute example was in June 2010, when, bucking its Western allies, Ankara voted against a new UN sanctions regime that would target Iran’s military.

Worries about Ankara’s eastward drift, however, exaggerate the degree of common interests between Turkey and Iran. Beneath an amicable veneer, relations between the two countries are marked by mistrust and unease. Turkey and Iran have been strategic rivals since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Persian Safavid dynasty blunted the Ottoman Empire’s eastward expansion. The Arab Spring has given this historical rivalry new life. Since the summer of 2011, conflicts between the two countries have become more visible on Syria, missile defense, secularism, Palestine, Iraq, and the Kurdish issue. As pressures for greater democracy in the Middle East have intensified, Turkey and Iran have clashed more openly and each side has sought to expand its influence at the expense of the other.

Syria marks the most serious source of discord. Ankara’s vociferous criticism of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as its support for the Syrian opposition, has angered Iranian leaders. Syria is Iran’s closest ally. Assad’s downfall would deal a major blow to Iran’s regional ambitions and leave Tehran ever more isolated. Consequently, in recent months, the ayatollahs in Iran have stepped up military support for Assad and, at the same time, accused Erdogan of openly interfering in Syrian internal affairs. Tensions increased at the end of June, after Syria downed a Turkish fighter jet. In response, Erdogan bluntly warned Damascus to keep troops away from the Turkish-Syrian border and requested a special meeting with its NATO allies to discuss a common approach.

Beyond Syria, Ankara’s agreement last September to host a NATO early-warning radar on Turkish soil has also infuriated the ayatollahs. Iranian commentators have claimed that the missile shield aims to protect Israel and target Iranian missiles. Last October, General Massoud Jazayeri, the deputy head of the Iranian armed forces, called on Turkey to “rethink its long-term strategic interests and draw lessons from the bitter historical experiences of other countries.” Turkey, however, has shown no sign of backing down.

To add insult to Iranian injury, the same month as the announcement about the NATO radar, Erdogan made a tour of northern Africa. In Cairo, his remarks about the importance of secularism drew strong criticism from the Iranian leadership. Clerics in Tehran, including Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, a former chief of the judiciary and a close adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accused Turkey of promoting a westernized version of Islam to advance its regional ambitions. Shahroudi’s criticism reflects Tehran’s concern about the popularity of the Turkish model, with its emphasis on democracy and secularism. But it also speaks to fears in Iran that Turkey is winning the political-ideological struggle for the allegiance of an increasing number of Muslims across the Middle East.

But it is not only in Cairo that Erdogan has trampled on issues that Tehran considers its own. In championing Palestinian rights, Erdogan has, in effect, hijacked the Palestinian issue and stolen Iran’s thunder. His support and his strident criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza increased his popularity on the Arab street. Today, he is seen by many Arabs as the only Muslim leader willing to stand up to Israel and forcefully defend Muslim interests. This has left the Iranian leadership fuming on the sidelines, struggling to get back in the game but with no viable plan for doing so.

Since the end of 2011, Iraq has also emerged as an important battleground between Turkey and Iran. The withdrawal of U.S. combat forces has left a power vacuum there that Iran has sought to exploit. Turkey has an interest in a stable, economically prosperous, and independent Iraq. It does not want to see the country turned into an Iranian satellite or become a springboard for the expansion of radical Islamist ideology.

However, over the last year, Erdogan’s relationship with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has deteriorated. Maliki is widely viewed by Ankara as Tehran’s man in Baghdad. He has close ties to the Iranian leadership, built up during his years of exile in Iran during Saddam Hussein’s rule. Since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, he has steadily sought to consolidate his political power. His attempt to strengthen ties with the radical militant group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which the U.S. military claims is financed and trained by Iran’s elite Quds Force, has alarmed Turkish officials who fear that these ties could shift the balance of political power in Baghdad in Iran’s favor.

The tension between Maliki and Erdogan intensified last January, after Maliki issued a warrant for the arrest of Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni who was charged with abetting terrorism. Hashimi subsequently fled to northern Iraq, where he has been under the protection of the Kurdish regional government, which has refused Baghdad’s request for his extradition. Turkish officials saw Maliki’s gambit as an effort to undercut the Sunnis and Kurds and increase Shia political dominance. They fear that Maliki’s attempt to curtail Sunni and Kurdish influence could increase the risk of a return to sectarian violence and lead to the breakup of Iraq, with the Kurds in the north gaining full independence.

Moreover, as a result of the increased unrest in Syria, the Kurdish issue is rapidly acquiring an important new dimension. It is no longer a disparate issue in separate countries where Kurdish communities reside. Contact between the Kurds in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey is increasing in an attempt to develop a coordinated approach. At the same time, the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been fighting Turkey for Kurdish independence since 1984) has stepped up its attacks from its havens in the Qandil mountains in northern Iraq. Turkish officials worry that Iran and Syria could actively support the PKK, as they did in the l980s and early 1990s, in order to try to weaken Ankara.

Economic problems between Turkey and Iran have risen as well. In the last decade, trade and financial ties have expanded significantly, especially in the energy field. Iran is the second-largest supplier of natural gas to Turkey, behind Russia. It also provides 30 percent of Turkey’s crude oil imports. But on several occasions, Iran abruptly cut off gas to Turkey for several weeks. Those stoppages, largely due to Iran’s antiquated distribution infrastructure, have caused considerable economic hardship for Turkey’s population and tarnished Iran’s reputation as a reliable partner. The closed nature of Iran’s economy has created significant difficulties as well. Turkish exporters face high tariffs on consumer goods, frequent changes in tariff rates, delays in import permits, overpriced fuel during transport, and prolonged delays at customs gates. These obstacles have caused many exporters to curtail business with Iran and seek more hospitable markets for their goods.

Finally, the growing instability in the Middle East unleashed by the Arab Spring has prompted Ankara to align its policy more closely with Washington. In addition to the decision to deploy the NATO early-warning radar, in April Erdogan, in tandem with U.S. sanctions, agreed to reduce oil purchases from Tehran by 20 percent. These moves do not, however, mark a fundamental shift in Turkish policy toward Iran. As in the past, Ankara is likely to remain reluctant to join an openly anti-Iranian coalition. However, any honeymoon between Turkey and Iran is clearly over. In the coming decade, the struggle for regional influence between the two powers is likely to grow and increasingly reshape the politics of the Middle East.

A day after a legislative body of the Episcopal Church voted to sell the denomination’s New York headquarters amid budget cuts and declining membership, church leaders on Saturday adopted legislation to give transgenders the right to become lay and ordained ministers.

At the church’s ongoing week-long General Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., the House of Bishops approved proposal that would amend two canons to prohibit discrimination based on “gender identity or expression” in the lay and ordained ministry discernment process and in the overall life, worship and governance of the church, Episcopal News Service reported.

The House of Deputies, the other legislative body of the bicameral General Convention of the Episcopal Church, must approve the legislation to pass at the convention.

The bishops’ move overlooks the fact that 200,000 members and 300 parishes have left the denomination in the past few years partly due to the church’s leftist policies on social and political issues. Nine years ago, the church approved its first openly gay bishop.

For many in the church, Saturday’s resolution was about “inclusion.”

“I am pleased that these resolutions did pass in that they have the very significant effect of validating, in the eyes of the church, the humanity of those who are transgender,” the Rev. Carolyn Woodall of the Diocese of San Joaquin was quoted as saying. “We are greatly misunderstood and there is a widespread lack of knowledge about what it means to be transgender.”

The Rev. Susan Russell, a deputy from the Diocese of Los Angeles and a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist, said the resolution brings the church “another step closer to making all the sacraments available to all the baptized.”

“The courageous witness of our transgender brothers and sisters has been an extraordinary gift to the church as we continue to grow in understanding and appreciation of the diversity of God’s beloved human family,” Russell added.

Some church leaders opposed the resolution.

“I believe we need to have more discussion in the church, in our congregations, in order to be able to speak in a way that is theologically sound, that gives a deeper understanding of what it means to be a transgender person,” said Bishop Andrew Waldo of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina.

“We are entering into a time of individualized eros … the freedom of every individual to self-define every aspect of who they are in such a way that we no longer have any kinds of norms. We are entering into the chaos of individuality,” said Bishop Mark Lawrence of the Diocese of South Carolina. “It’s an idol that will break us,” he warned.

Leaders of the church are also scheduled to vote on a liturgy for same-sex weddings during the convention, which concludes on Thursday.

In recent years, the membership of the Episcopal Church, which is rooted in the Church of England, has declined to below two million, and the average Sunday attendance is as low as 657,831.

Vatican ‘accepted one billion lire’ to bury crime boss in basilica next to former popes

Basilica of St Apollinaris

The Vatican is facing a deepening controversy over the burial 22 years ago of a notorious crime boss, with reports emerging that the church accepted a one billion lire (£407,000) payment from the mobster’s widow to allow his interment in a basilica.

If there’s one building in Jerusalem that represents the city’s tangle of religions, this is it. The ground floor is a Jewish holy site said to house the tomb of the biblical King David. The second floor is the Cenacle, a Christian holy site, the room believed to be the site of Jesus’ Last Supper. On the roof, there’s an old minaret from when this place was marked a Muslim holy site.

One building, three religions, decades of property disputes. And the fight isn’t over.

 

The place is so essential, so much an integral part of the Christian narrative. Needless to say, it’s a dream that we could pray there in regular fashion like other holy places.

 - The Rev. David Neuhaus

Shimon Gibson, an archaeologist from London who has excavated sites connected to Jesus’ final week, says he believes the Last Supper — and the burial of King David — happened in other parts of the city. Still, Jews, Christians and Muslims venerate this site.

The building was destroyed and rebuilt a few times over. The original Byzantine church was replaced by the Crusaders.

“You can see pilgrims have left their names on the walls,” Gibson notes.

Later it was taken over by Muslim Mamluks.

“You can see a mihrab, indicating that at one point this chapel was once a mosque,” Gibson says.

Catholic Franciscan friars took custody in the 14th century; 200 years later, they were kicked out by the Ottoman sultan. After the 1967 Mideast war, Israel took control.

Israeli authorities have wanted to avoid allowing the Vatican to administer any kind of authority over a site that today isn’t under the control of the Holy See. So Israel limits organized Christian prayers here to just a few times a year. There are no crosses on the wall; no chapel. Groups of pilgrims from around the world shuffle in, take snapshots and shuffle out. Sometimes stray cats wander around.

“I am a little bit disappointed, because, yes, I was expecting a place where you can go and pray,” says Katharina Iacono of Germany, who sat on a bench in the corner. “It is difficult because [it's] very loud. And with cats and with some smells, it’s not very easy.”

The Vatican says this building belongs to the church, since friars bought it hundreds of years ago.

“The place is so essential, so much an integral part of the Christian narrative,” says the Rev. David Neuhaus, a Catholic vicar in Jerusalem. “Needless to say, it’s a dream that we could pray there in regular fashion like other holy places.”

It’s not the first time in history that Christian prayer here has been limited. In the 16th century, the Ottoman sultan prohibited Christians from the room of the Last Supper.

David’s tomb is the main attraction today for devout Jews. Rabbi Avraham Goldstein, who directs a seminary at the site, says he has pleaded with Israeli politicians not to cede any control here.

“The minute they’ll make it as a church, Jews, halachically, according to Jewish law, are forbidden to go in there,” he says. “It’s a disgrace for Israel, you know, it’s like milk spilled that you can never return it back.”

For two decades, Israel and the Holy See have been trying to work out disputes over church properties in Jerusalem. One of the few remaining thorns is the Last Supper room. Shmuel Ben Shmuel, an Israeli negotiator, says the talks are at a critical moment.

“We don’t want to go into all the details right now when we are in the midst of negotiations,” he says.

A final agreement could come as early as June.

News from the Frontlines of Persecution

March 2012 Released April 2, 2012

Copyright 2012 Compass Direct News

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CHINA

DRIVE TO RELEASE RIGHTS ATTORNEY PUSHES FORWARD

March 30 (Compass Direct News) – Confirmation this week of China’s assertion in December that human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng is alive and serving out a prison sentence is key as efforts continue for his release, a human rights attorney said. Gao, a Christian whose advocacy for religious minorities led to his conviction in 2006 for “subversion,” is serving a previously suspended sentence of three years in Shaya County Prison in Xinjiang region in western China. The government had informed Gao’s brother on Dec. 29 that he was detained at the remote Shaya prison, according to an urgent petition by Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Freedom Now to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, but officials had refused the family’s request to visit the prisoner. Chinese officials granted permission for Gao’s brother, Gao Zhiyi, to visit the rights attorney on Saturday (March 24), The Associated Press reported this week. Jared Genser, president of Freedom Now, told Compass that confirmation of Gao’s imprisonment was important, as “it was not a foregone conclusion that he was alive, given the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] record for reporting on the whereabouts and health” of detainees. “The United States has worked publicly and privately for Gao’s release, but we’re looking for the White House, specifically the president and vice president, to get involved, and so far this has not happened,” Genser said. “We’re pushing hard, but so far we’re not getting a positive response.”

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EGYPT

ISLAMISTS USE RUMORS TO ATTACK CHRISTIANS

March 5 (Compass Direct News) – Tensions remain high in an Egyptian village where as many as 5,000 mostly Salafi Muslims went on a rampage over a false rumor that a church was holding a girl against her will in order to convert her back to Christianity. Dismissing media reports of 20,000 rioting Muslims, sources told Compass that between 2,000 and 5,000 hard-line Muslims, most of them from the Salafi movement, last month harassed Christian villagers in Meet Bahsar in the Nile Delta, attacked a church building to “save” the girl, damaged a priest’s house and then destroyed his car. The girl was not in the church building. She reportedly said her father, a Coptic convert to Islam, treated her poorly and that she had fled of her own accord, and that after hearing reports of the attacks, she contacted police. The Salafis have used such rumors to incite other attacks. In January, Salafists terrorized Christians of a village in northern Egypt after an unsubstantiated rumor spread about a video recording of an affair between a Coptic man and a Muslim woman. The Muslims in Sharbat forced numerous Christians to abandon their property in informal but binding “reconciliation councils,” though a parliamentary commission overturned their rulings last month, and most of the evicted Christian families have returned home.

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EGYPT

COURT SENTENCES PRIEST FROM ATTACKED CHURCH BUILDING

March 7 (Compass Direct News) – A priest in Egypt was sentenced this week to six months in jail for a minor construction violation at his church building, while no one in a mob that burned the same structure down has been arrested. The Rev. Makarious Bolous of the Mar Gerges Church in Aswan was sentenced on Sunday (March 4). Bolous said the ruling, coupled with the absence of prosecution against those who burned down the church building, is clear evidence of persecution and a legal double standard between Christians and Muslims. The lower court that made the ruling also fined Bolous 300 Egyptian pounds (US$50). He remained free Tuesday (March 6) awaiting appeal. Local government officials said the building was 2.5 meters taller than what they had approved on a series of architectural drawings for the church building. On Sept. 30, 2011, some 3,000 villagers set fire to and then demolished the Mar Gerges building and razed four nearby homes and two businesses, all Christian-owned. The tension in El Marenab village began the last week of August, when Muslim extremists voiced anger over the renovations at Mar Gerges. On Oct. 9, thousands of people marched through the streets of Cairo in protest over that and other attacks on Christians, a demonstration that turned into a blood-bath after counter-protestors opened fire and soldiers ran over protestors with riot-control vehicles. Of the 27 people killed, at least 23 were Christians.

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EGYPT

NUNS TRAUMATIZED AFTER SCHOOL ATTACK

March 16 (Compass Direct News) – Two nuns in Upper Egypt faced “unimaginable fear” – with one later hospitalized over the emotional trauma –when 1,500 Muslim villagers brandishing swords and knives trapped them inside a guesthouse last week and threatened to burn them out. The next day, the assailants frightened children at the school; attendance has since dropped by more than a third. Accusing the nuns of building a church at the site, the throng on March 4 chanted Islamic slogans as they surrounded the guesthouse of a privately run, public school in the village of Abu Al-Reesh, in Aswan Province. Two nuns, volunteer teachers at Notre Dame Language Schools, barricaded themselves into the school’s guesthouse for about eight hours. The women were “terrified,” said Magdy Melad, director of the school. School workers hid a third nun from the mob in a separate building on the campus out of fear that the mob would attack her as well. From three mosques near the school, people began shouting over loudspeakers in minarets, summoning more Muslims to surround the guesthouse. The two nuns suffered cuts and bruises in the attack, and one fainted during the ordeal. The women were taken to a Catholic church in Aswan, except for one, who suffered what Melad characterized as a “major” nervous breakdown and had to be transported on March 8 to Cairo, where she was hospitalized.

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 EGYPT

SALAFIST LEADERS CELEBRATE DEATH OF COPTIC POPE

March 23 (Compass Direct News) – As Christians across Egypt continued to mourn the loss of Pope Shenouda III this week, Islamist leaders of the Salafist movement issued a litany of insults, calling the late leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church the “head of the infidels” and thanking God for his death. The vitriol indicated the level of hostility the Salafists, who now make up 20 percent of Egypt’s parliament, have toward Christians. In a recorded message released on the Facebook page of one leading Salafi teacher, Sheik Wagdy Ghoneim, the sheik celebrated the pontiff’s death. “We rejoice that he is destroyed. He has perished,” Ghoneim said on Sunday (March 18), the day after Shenouda died at the age of 88. “May God have His revenge on him in the fire of hell – he and all who walk his path.” After the cleric issued his statement, several others followed suit, releasing insults throughout the week. Bishop Mouneer Anis, head of the Episcopal and Anglican Diocese of Egypt, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, said that insulting people after their death is considered one of the rudest things someone can do in the Middle East. Anis, a close friend of the pontiff, told Compass the comments and actions were “very sad.” Most Muslims in Egypt did not share Ghoneim’s sentiments. The leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest Islamic group in the country, issued a statement expressing his condolences over the Coptic pope’s death.

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INDIA

PARENTS, ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS BEAT YOUNG WOMAN

March 20 (Compass Direct News) – A young woman was thrown out of her home this month for daring to give thanks for healing in Christ’s name in a predominantly Muslim village in India’s West Bengal state, and then her parents helped Islamic extremists to beat her nearly unconscious. The attack on Rekha Khatoon, 22, took place on March 9 in Nutangram, Murshidabad. “I boldly told those who beat me up that I may leave my parents, but that I will not leave Jesus,” Khatoon said. “Jesus has healed me, and I cannot forget Him.” In a village where hard-line Muslims have threatened to kill the 25 families who initially showed interest in Christ, leaving only five frightened Christian families, Khatoon was returning from worship with Believers Church at Al Hamdulillah Hall when her parents and Muslim extremists attacked her, she said. The mob also harassed the Christian woman who encouraged Khatoon to trust Christ as Lord, Aimazan Bibi, said Bashir Pal, pastor and founder of the village Believers Church. “On the same night, Rekha Khatoon’s father, Nistar Shaike, and about 20 Muslim radicals surrounded Aimazan’s house, shouted anti-Christian slogans, threatened to harm her and her family and falsely accused her of ‘luring’ Rekha to convert to Christianity,” Pastor Pal told Compass.

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INDIA

RECENT INCIDENTS OF PERSECUTION

March 29 (Compass Direct News) – Police arrested five Christians on March 25 in Dhanegaon, Chhinwara, after Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh attacked them and accused them of forceful conversion. A source told Compass the extremists barged into the Sunday worship service of Bharatiya Pratna Bhawan (India Prayer Hall), beat pastor Harichand Varti and church members Santaram Parteti and Mayram Padame, and dragged them to the police station. Pastor Varti’s back was seriously injured, and his hands were cut, the source said. Senior Pastor Rajkumar Narad rushed to the police station to file a complaint, but police took him into custody and later also charged Pastor Varti and two church members with “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.” At press time area Christian leaders were taking steps to get them out on bail.

 West Bengal – State police arrested seven Christians on March 15 in Asansol, Branpur after anti-Christian elements attacked them. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported that the opponents of Christianity suddenly surrounded five pastors – Weleston Kisku, Animesh Das, Nripen Das, Satyanarayan Soren and Rajesh Das – and two unidentified Christians as they distributed gospel tracts and verbally and physically mistreated them. Police took the seven Christians to the station and later released them without charges. Soon a group of Kora tribal people filed a police complaint against the Christians of forceful conversion and luring people to Christianity by offering food and clothes, according to the EFI. Police summoned the Christians back and charged them with promoting enmity and hurting religious feelings. The next day, a judge rejected their appeal for bail and sent them to the Dulal Mandal jail, where they remained at press time.

Madhya Pradesh – Police in Jabalpur detained eight Korean Christians on March 15 after Hindu extremists filed a complaint against them of luring people to convert to Christianity. A source reported that Hindu extremists from the Dharma Sena (Religious Army) also accused them of distributing pamphlets with objectionable materials in them and took the Christians to Adhartal police station. Hindu extremist leader Arvind Baba complained that the Koreans were offering huge sums of money to people to convert to Christianity. The Koreans denied the accusations. After police investigated, the Christians were released without charges.                                     

New Delhi – Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on March 12 attacked a prayer meeting in Kalkaji, New Delhi and made false allegations that Christians were desecrating idols and making insulting remarks about their gods and goddesses, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI). Jagdish Dey of the Apostolic Faith Church (AFC) was leading a prayer meeting at the residence of a church member attended by six women and a few children when the extremists stood at the door of the house and started taking photographs, according to the EFI. After the final prayer, the extremists forcefully entered the house and dragged Dey out to the street, where about 30 armed extremists waited to beat him, but the women kept Dey from them. Police arrived and took Dey into custody, where area AFC pastor Bobby Chellappan and the Rev. Jobby Prasannan soon arrived, as did 50 Hindu extremists who threatened to hurt the Christians and pressured police into forcing Dey to promise to stop the prayer meetings. “It was a false allegation against us – we do not talk about other people’s religion, nor teach people to talk ill against any other faith,” Chellappan told the EFI. The Hindu extremists have also kept the Christians from using the public water pump and have pressured landlords to evict them, Prasannan told the EFI. In a similar incident the next day, the extremists disrupted a women’s prayer meeting led by another AFC pastor, Blessy Bobby, and ordered the Christians to cease the meeting or face harm, according to the EFI.

Madhya Pradesh – State police on March 11 arrested a pastor and another Christian after Hindu extremists disrupted their Sunday worship in Multai, Betul district. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported that extremists from the Bajrang Dal stormed the house church, stopped worship and accused pastor Motilal Gujare of forceful conversion. Pastor Gujare’s brother, a zealous Hindu extremist, instigated his co-religionists to break up the worship due to a personal grievance he had against the pastor, according to the EFI. Multai police arrived and arrested Pastor Gujare and Prakash Masih for “uttering words with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person.” The Christians were sent to jail and were released on bail on March 15.

Karnataka – State police in Ankola, Uttar Kannada on March 4 arrested a pastor after Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh disrupted a worship service, beat him and other church members and accused them of forceful conversion. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the extremists barged into the Sunday worship of New Life Church, beat pastor K. Manohar, his wife Lavanya and other church members and took the pastor and his wife to police, accusing them of forceful conversion. The Christians were detained till late evening, and after area leaders’ intervention, Pastor Manohar’s wife was released without charges, but he was charged with hurting religious feelings and was sent to jail, according to the GCIC. At press time area Christian leaders were working to get the pastor released.

Karnataka – On March 3 in Vijayanagar, Bangalore, Hindu extremists accused Christians of forceful conversion and ordered them to halt a prayer meeting. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the extremists forcefully entered the prayer meeting led by two women identified only as Parimala and Padmavathi of Mahima Prarthana Mandira. Police officers arrived, verbally abused the Christians and then ordered them to report to the police station the next day. Officers detained the Christians the following day, but after area Christian leaders’ intervention, they were released without a First Information Report being filed against them. GCIC also reported that the two women had to give a statement in writing that they wouldn’t visit houses and distribute tracts, and that they would not lead prayer vigils.

Assam – Hindu extremists in Gophur on March 3 beat a Christian worker for his faith. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the extremists beat evangelist Santosh K. Jose, put a garland of sandals on him and paraded him through the village. Jose sustained severe injuries and was taken to his native Kannur, Kerala state, for treatment and rest.

Madhya Pradesh – On Feb. 28 Dasrath Mandari expelled his Christian wife, Satwantin Mandari, from their home and village in Tuthuly, Kanker, because of her faith in Christ. A source told Compass that Hindu extremists had warned him that they would ostracize the family if his wife continued to believe in Christ, and he cast her out that same night. The community strictly prohibited her from returning home unless she returned to Hinduism. The homeless Christian was staying with a Christian family in Kanker.

 Madhya Pradesh – The parents of a 23-year-old woman, along with community members, chased her from her home and village because she refused to renounce Christ. A source told Compass that Hindu extremists Patel Singh, Jalam Singh and Raja Ram and one identified only as Iswar pressured Mingaro Bhai’s parents, Dasu Ram and Sadhini Ram, to throw her out. The convert from Hinduism took shelter with another Christian in Kanker and filed a complaint against the attackers on Feb. 13 in Dudhada Chowki Thana. Officials summoned her on Feb. 24 to tell her she could proceed with the complaint against her attackers, including her parents, in a higher court, but at press time Bhai had not done so.

Madhya Pradesh – On Jan. 19 in Modi, Thana Antagar, Kanker, Hindu extremists stopped a Christian from beginning her new job because of her faith in Christ. A source reported that the Madhya Pradesh government appointed Shrimati Sambhai of a Gospel for Asia church as a pre-school teacher, but the village head, Dhanuram Behari, and community leader Hiralal Behari persuaded the state to revoke her appointment because of her Christian faith. She filed a police complaint in Sarpanch Amodi on Feb. 18, to no avail. Area Christian leaders were intervening, but at press time the Christian was still not allowed to take her post.                                     

Madhya Pradesh – Hindu extremists in Terra Gowndi, Dhamtari, on Jan. 18 ostracized a Christian convert from Hinduism and pressured him to leave the village. A source told Compass that the extremist threatened to throw Om Prakash Sahu out of the village if he did not renounce Christ, and they also threatened his parents with harm if they did not bring him back to Hinduism.

www.compassdirect.org

END

Monday, March 26, 2012  By Tzippe Barrow

Map of Psalm 83

JERUSALEM, Israel — On Friday, organizers of the Global March to Jerusalem hope to further their goal of liberating Jerusalem from the “illegal Zionist occupation.”  It’s a concept they apply to all of “occupied Palestine.”

The group chose March 30 to coincide with Palestinian “Land Day” and predicts “massive marches” at Israel’s northern and southern borders, the “West Bank” (Israel’s biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip.

The Israel Defense Forces are preparing for Friday’s march and plan to incorporate lessons they learned during border protests at last June’s commemoration of the “Nakba.”  Nakba is an Arabic term meaning “catastrophe,” which they use to describe the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

The European Preparatory Committee for the Global March to Jerusalem, whose membership includes the U.K.’s Muslim Brotherhood and the Free Gaza Movement, invited people across Europe to take part in the “legitimate struggle of the indigenous Palestinian people.”

“We say no to Zionism and to an exclusive Jewish colonial state, which reacts to the legitimate struggle of the indigenous Palestinian people with the expansion of its apartheid rule,” the invitation read.

The rhetoric is strikingly familiar to the Free Gaza Movement’s aim to confront “Israel’s ongoing abuses of Palestinian human and political rights.”

Rising Muslim populations in Europe and the U.S. equate Zionism with oppression and promote the theory that the Jewish people are the interlopers and have no legitimate claim to Israel or Jerusalem.

Iran is actively promoting the event, the Israeli-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reported earlier this month. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran should support all movements and groups operating against Jerusalem.

Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip plan to participate in the march, aimed in part “to end the Zionist policies of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and Judaization” of Israel’s capital.

“We paid a lot in blood in order to keep Jerusalem an Arabic and Islamic city,” Gaza-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said on February 24.  “The Arab Spring brought the Islamic nation to the threshold of the city of Jerusalem.”

In a position paper published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs‘ Jerusalem Viewpoints, author Ehud Rosen analyzed the rise of the international campaign to delegitimize Israel.

He cites the September 2001 U.N.-sponsored conference in Durban, South Africa, as major turning point in that campaign. It labeled Israel an apartheid state that engaged in ethnic cleansing and promoted genocide — and urged the international community to isolate and boycott the Jewish state.

The Arab Spring, Rosen says, bolstered this increasing campaign to delegitimize Israel since it strengthened the rise of Sunni Islam in such countries as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Kuwait and Morocco.