Barnabas aid July August 2015

barnabasaid BARNABAS FUND - AID AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH India

Hindu nationalists target Christians

Prayer

Key ministry for a Barnabas church partner

IN THE HOMELAND OF THE

barnabasfund.org

july/august 2015

The Good Samaritan Being a neighbour to Christians in need

What helps make Barnabas Fund distinctive from other Christian organisations that deal with persecution?

The Barnabas Fund Distinctive We work by:

●● directing our aid only to Christians, although its

benefits may not be exclusive to them (“As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:10, emphasis added)

●● aiming the majority of our aid at Christians living in Muslim environments

●● channelling money from Christians through Christians to Christians

●● channelling money through existing structures in the countries where funds are sent (e.g. local churches or Christian organisations)

●● using the money to fund projects that have

been developed by local Christians in their own communities, countries or regions

●● considering any request, however small ●● acting as equal partners with the persecuted Church, whose leaders often help shape our overall direction

How to find us Australia PO BOX 3527, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 Telephone (07) 3806 1076 or 1300 365 799 Fax (07) 3806 4076 Email bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org UK 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Telephone 024 7623 1923 Fax 024 7683 4718 From outside the UK Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Email info@barnabasfund.org Registered charity number 1092935 Company registered in England number 4029536 For a list of all trustees, please contact Barnabas Fund UK at the Coventry address above.

barnabasaid the magazine of Barnabas Fund Published by Barnabas Fund The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK: Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org

●● acting on behalf of the persecuted Church, to

be their voice – making their needs known to Christians around the world and the injustice of their persecution known to governments and international bodies

We seek to:

●● meet both practical and spiritual needs ●● encourage, strengthen and enable the existing local Church and Christian communities – so they can maintain their presence and witness rather than setting up our own structures or sending out missionaries

●● facilitate global intercession for

the persecuted Church by providing comprehensive prayer materials

We believe:

●●we are called to address both religious and secular ideologies that deny full religious liberty to Christian minorities – while continuing to show God’s love to all people

●● in the clear Biblical teaching that Christians

should treat all people of all faiths with love and compassion, even those who seek to persecute them

●● tackle persecution at its root by making

●● in the power of prayer to change people’s lives

●● inform and enable Christians in the West

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

known the aspects of the Islamic faith and other ideologies that result in injustice and oppression of non-believers

and situations, either through grace to endure or through deliverance from suffering

to respond to the growing challenge of Islam to Church, society and mission in their own countries

(Matthew 25:40)

You may contact Barnabas Fund at the following addresses USA 6731 Curran St, McLean, VA 22101 Telephone (703) 288-1681 or toll-free 1-866-936-2525 Fax (703) 288-1682 Email usa@barnabasaid.org New Zealand PO Box 27 6018, Manukau City, Auckland, 2241 Telephone (09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805 Email office@barnabasfund.org.nz Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland PO Box 354, Bangor, BT20 9EQ Telephone 028 91 455 246 or 07875 539003 Email ireland@barnabasfund.org

To guard the safety of Christians in hostile environments, names may have been changed or omitted.

Thank you for your understanding.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission for stories and images used in this publication. Barnabas Fund apologises for any errors or omissions and will be grateful for any further information regarding copyright. © Barnabas Fund 2015

Germany German supporters may send gifts for Barnabas Fund via Hilfe für Brüder who will provide you with a tax-deductible receipt. Please mention that the donation is for “SPC 20 Barnabas Fund”. If you would like your donation to go to a specific project of Barnabas Fund, please inform the Barnabas Fund office in Pewsey, UK. Account holder: Hilfe für Brüder International e.V. Account number: 415 600 Bank: Evang Kreditgenossenschaft Stuttgart IBAN: DE89520604100000415600 BIC: GENODEF1EK1

Singapore Cheques in Singapore dollars payable to “Barnabas Fund” may be sent to: The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK International Headquarters The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK: Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org

To donate by credit card please visit the website or phone BFA office on 1300 365 799 Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version®.

100% recycled. The paper used is produced using wood fibre at a mill that has been awarded the ISO14001 certificate for environmental management.

Front cover: An Indian Christian in Orissa © Barnabas Fund 2015. For permission to reproduce articles from this magazine, please contact the International Headquarters address above.

The paper used in this publication comes from sustainable forests and can be

Editorial

Contents

No Matter What The Cost

4 Compassion in Action

Speedy help for Christians in Nepal

The Rt. Rev. Julian M. Dobbs Honorary Director, Barnabas Aid, USA

Jesus calls his disciples to a life faithfulness to Himself, no matter what the cost!

5 10

Behind the Headlines

India -The origins of the BJP

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hristians around the world are suffering for their faith today in ever increasing numbers.

Headlines in many newspapers describe horrific acts of violence against Christian minorities.

For example, labelled the world's worst humanitarian crisis since World War II, the conflict in Syria has now entered its fifth year. An entire generation of children is growing up with no experience of a peaceful existence. In Nigeria, more people have been killed by Julian M. Boko Haram than have died in the entire ebola epidemic and Dobbs the bloodletting seems to be only getting worse. In Kenya, Al- is Honorary Director, Shabaab militants laughed and taunted their young victims and Barnabas Aid in USA separated Christians from Muslims in a day-long raid on Kenya's Garissa University in which 148 people were killed.

The reports keep coming! The question is, “Why?” “Why is the suffering of Christians increasing in our world?”

The Bible helps us to understand that the persecution of God’s people will significantly increase the closer we come to the return of Jesus Christ. In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 24, Jesus teaches his disciples about the pressure and trials that will be experienced by them prior to his return. Our Lord warns us of these circumstances, not to frighten us, but in order to encourage us to stand firm in the faith no matter what the cost.

We must also ask, “Why are Christians prepared to suffer and die as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ?” Again, the Bible helps us to understand why Christians are willing to give their lives for their faith.

The word martyr comes from a word which means witness [μαρτύριον martyrion]. It was first used to describe the early Christians who under duress chose death rather than denying the lordship of Christ. This same tenacity is exhibited by thousands of Christians today who faithfully declare the lordship of this same Jesus Christ. We need to ask ourselves profound questions about that remarkable point of intersection between faith and death.

Why do they do it?

Writing to the church gathered in Smyrna, modern day Izmir, Turkey, Jesus said, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer... Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Rev 2:10) Jesus calls his disciples to a life faithfulness to Himself, no matter what the cost!

Our suffering brothers and sisters whose testimonies you read in this edition of Barnabas Aid are the modern day heroes of our faith who daily take up their cross and follow Christ, no matter what the cost!

Blessed Lord God, hear us now as we pray to you.

Grant us grace to stand firm in the faith and to gladly follow you with all our lives.

In Christ’s name. Amen.

Dawa

Dawa through Islamisation

11

Barnabas Church Partners

Prayer is key for an Australian partner

Nationalism and the Drive for a HinduOnly India

14

Grace upon Grace

16

Biblical Reflection

17

Interview

18

In Touch

Stories of God’s mercies amidst persecution

Being a good Samaritan

Vinay Samuel gives his views on India

A Children’s choir raises money for Barnabas

18

how barnabas is helping Displaced Christians in Syria Reports from the city of Aleppo are chilling. “Almost every day people die of mortar bombs falling anywhere and at any time.” On the night of April 10, which was observed as Good Friday by many Christians in Syria, missiles rained down for five hours on an area of the city heavily populated by Christians. Twenty-nine Christians, including many children, lost their lives. People are desperate for safety, placing their faith in God for peace to return.

Priority for the aid provided to Syrian Christians through Barnabas is given to displaced families, widows, and those who have infants and children. Last year we assisted an estimated 96,000 Syrian Christians. Funds sent through the local churches are used to provide food and hygiene items, medicines and access to minor surgery.

Grateful Syrian Christians receiving aid

AU$4,681,250 for Syrian Christians in the last 12 months Project reference 00-1032

How beautiful on the mountains …

Pastor “Karimbek” walks many kilometres up into the rugged terrain around his city in Kyrgyzstan every week to disciple Christian converts from Islam. Karimbek and his wife teach on Christian values relating to (for example) family relationships, parenting and business. As families take the teaching to heart and put it into action, their lives are transformed.

Some have even bought livestock and poultry to begin businesses.

“Before that,” he says, ”some heads of families didn’t want to work. Today they work and [support their] own families. They try to help neighbours and it is a good opportunity to talk about Jesus.”

Pastor Karimbek with a Christian family

AU$3,492 for Kyrgyz pastor Project reference 00-477 (Pastors Support Fund )

Understanding the challenge of Islam A project in Mozambique is training 125 Christian leaders in five cities across the country to understand the challenge that Islam poses to the Church. After training, each of the 125 participants will train 50-100 other people, drawn from a wide area, who will themselves go on to teach at the grass-roots level.

Through this strategic approach, the plan is that at least 80 of Mozambique’s 134 districts will be touched by the training and a network of 7,000-8,000 pastors, evangelists and others will be equipped with basic information and skills for responding. The training is based on Barnabas Fund’s study guide Unveiled .

Christians in Mozambique

AU$7,981 for Leadership Training in Mozambique Project reference 37-1221

Strengthened and encouraged. This is what we often hear from Christians who have received support from Barnabas Fund. Thank you for making this possible. The following pages are just a few examples of the many ways we have recently helped persecuted and pressurised Christians.

Feeding Christian families in Pakistan Providing food for poor Christian families makes it possible for their children to go to school, breaking the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Your help for thousands of such families in Pakistan really makes a difference.

Mr Masih and his wife have five children. They lived in a village but moved to Francisabad for better opportunities. Settling and finding enough work has been a struggle. Mr Masih came to think it might be better to move back to his village but the feeding programme has meant that they can stay. “If we didn’t have this help” he tells us, ”I might have asked my elder son to [leave education and] work with me to support family.”

The Masih family – one of over 2,000 families we help

AU$778,083 to feed 12,500 Christians in Pakistan in the last 12 months Project reference 41-331

Training for Nepalese Christians in India Sixteen thousand people in the plains around Darjeeling, northern India were abandoned to their fate, some literally starving to death, when tea plantations closed. Many were Nepalese Christians who had come to India to find work. Poverty and hopelessness led to human trafficking, child labour and social issues such as violent crime, substance abuse and psychological problems.

“Anna ”, a former Buddhist nun, says, “My family almost collapsed.

I was frustrated [but] the message of Jesus worked in my life and I accepted Him as my Lord.” Our partner’s project turns lives around by training Christians to live out the Gospel message of hope, generate sustainable incomes, build community and teach the true value of life and its importance.

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 5

New arrivals in children’s home Your support changes lives every day! These two brothers, new arrivals at the Children’s Home, are aged seven and four. Burmese soldiers tortured and then executed their father. The boys were initially taken in at a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) inside Burma (Myanmar), then brought to their current location. The picture shows the boys engaged in passionate worship. “Both boys love Jesus very much,” says our contact, who is providing the boys with new clothes and also trying to establish if rumours that their mother might also be in the IDP camp are true so they could be reunited.

Students on a tutor training course

The two boys lost in worship

AU$10,973 for training Nepalese Christians in India

AU$24,938 for Burmese children’s homes

Project reference 21-1012

Project reference 75-821

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Funerals for Christians who lost their lives in Lahore, Pakistan

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A Christian family with their new house

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A Christian survivor of the earthquakes in Nepal with emergency aid supplied by Barnabas

Compassion in Action

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 7

bringing hope, transforming lives Timely response to Lahore church bombings

1

Thanks to the generosity of Barnabas Fund supporters and our network of trusted project partners on the ground in many countries, Barnabas can respond rapidly to urgent needs. Two suicide bombings at churches in Lahore, Pakistan on 15 March, killed 19 people and injured over 100 as they gathered for Sunday worship. Within two days we made funds available to the local Church to provide emergency assistance for victims of the attack and their families.

With deep gratitude, the Bishop of Lahore the Rt Rev Irfan Jamil wrote, “This grant will be a blessing to our brothers and sisters who have been affected by this tragic event … let me state that Barnabas Fund has been the first to respond practically [to] the sad incident at Youhanabad.”

Two church members acting as volunteer security guards at St John’s Church and Christ Church gave their own lives to deny the terrorists access to the church compounds, thereby saving many lives.

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, local church leaders were quickly at the scene comforting those caught up in the incident and then visiting victims and affected families in nearby hospitals or in their homes. Your gifts are providing cash for families who have lost their breadwinner as well as treatment, medicine and wholesome food to aid speedy recovery for the injured. See Newsdesk (p8) for more information about the attacks.

Project reference 41-842

Speedy help for Christians in Nepal

2

After the first of the two earthquakes in Nepal, Barnabas Fund immediately began to reach out to our brothers and sisters in their time of need. Our appeal allowed supporters to display their compassion and your response was very generous.

Barnabas Fund provided emergency food aid, water purification tablets, cooking utensils, hygiene kits, tarpaulins, clothing, blankets, and medicines to affected Christians across the country. A typical food package includes rice, daal (lentils), oil, sugar, noodles, salt, and tea. We have also covered the funeral expenses for 18 Christians.

Our partners are designing semipermanent shelters in the form of oneroom houses measuring ten feet (3m) by eight feet (2.5m) costing around £100 (US $156; €140) each. These will protect homeless families during the monsoon season (June-August) tarpaulins would be inadequate.

Our funds are not required to go through government channels. Established local Nepalese Christian organisations get Barnabas Fund’s aid straight to Christians who are in desperate need. Some Christians have been deliberately overlooked in the distribution of government aid. “A pastor from a local church in Kathmandu,” reported one of our Nepalese contacts, “said that the building inspection group skipped his church and it is neither inspected nor listed as damaged.”

The growing Church in Nepal is still a very small and marginalised minority.

Christians have suffered considerable persecution and discrimination.

Project reference 00-634

Giving families a home, a hope and a future

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Large-scale anti-Christian violence by Hindu extremists in 2007 and 2008 in Orissa, India left 60,000 Christians homeless. Even now, thousands of Christians remain without a proper secure roof over their heads, but Barnabas Fund has helped to repair or construct over 1,300 homes for pastors and members of their churches. Typically, a simple one-room house costs around £700 to build. Work is nearing completion on the final phase of housebuilding.

This project is rebuilding shattered lives, not just houses. Since 2008, Pastor S N had income enough only to feed his family and educate his two daughters, leaving his demolished house a bare shell without a floor, roof, windows or a door. He prayed for God’s help. In 2011, the project surveyed his house and “with the help of Barnabas Fund… unknown brothers and sisters on the other side of the world” he now has a beautiful house, and thanks God for this provision.

Another pastor, his house totally demolished, was told that he could not return to his village unless he denied Jesus Christ. He had to leave everything and relocate to the town of Tikbali. Landlords made even renting a house difficult, and he had to move home repeatedly. By God’s grace the pastor was given land by a fellow Christian, then “God led the project through Barnabas Fund to help me to build my house in Tikabali … my heartfelt thanks to all the BF donors.”

Project reference 21-723

Newsdesk

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 8

Christian students massacred as Al-Shabaab seize Kenyan university

19 dead from suicide bombing in Pakistan Kenya

In a day-long assault on Kenya’s Garissa University, Al-Shabaab gunmen killed 148 people, singling out the Christians for death. Those who could not or would not recite passages from the Quran were gunned down or beheaded, leaving bodies littered across the student accommodation block.

Kenyan Christian leader, Canon Francis Omondi, told Barnabas he had been communicating by SMS to a student, Wendy, who had hidden in her wardrobe with four of her dorm mates. “They had resisted the deception by the attackers who called ‘our religion doesn’t allow us to kill

women, come out’,” he said. He also told Barnabas Fund, “there were 13 Christian Union members in early morning prayers; all were slain with one dying on his knees!”

Al-Shabaab is a Somali-based insurgency group linked to Al-Qaeda that has declared that Kenya is at war with Somalia. After Kenyan authorities sent troops in 2011 into Somalia to help counter terrorist activity, the country has been plagued with acts of brutality, often against Kenya’s Christian population. The Garissa siege is Al-Shabaab’s deadliest attack to date.

29 Syrian Christians killed in Aleppo during violent onslaught Syria

Pakistan

Pakistani Christian community hold funeral ceremony for ten of those killed At least 19 people were killed and over 100 more injured in twin suicide bomb attacks against two churches in the city of Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday 15 March.

Fighters from Jamaatul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taliban, targeted two churches in Lahore’s Youhanabad neighbourhood, one of the country’s largest Christian

a young boy approached Christ Church carrying a machine gun. After shooting a policeman and church member, he blew himself up Aleppo has been left in ruins by months of fighting Image Source: Freedom House / CC BY 2.0 Armenian and other solidly Christian neighbourhoods of Aleppo suffered from a deadly rebel attack in the second week of April that peaked on April 10 – the day that many Armenians were celebrating Good Friday – with rockets killing some 29 people, many of them children. At least 56 Christians were injured and seven Christian homes totally collapsed.

It was “a hell” said one Christian leader in Aleppo, describing the five hours from 9 pm until 2 am on Friday night and Saturday morning in which rockets rained down on the Christian homes. The final rocket to fall weighed 350 kg but did not explode.

At least ten or eleven children were killed as they slept. In one home, a mother and her four children all died. But better news came on Saturday night when four other children were found alive under the ruins of one building.

Christians in Aleppo are in danger from attacks by forces within Syria, but they are also aware of a threat emanating from Turkey: “We will show all Armenians how to celebrate the 100th anniversary on 24 April.”

This refers to the centenary of the worst year of the Armenian and Assyrian Genocide, which peaked in 1915. In that year some 800,000 Armenians were killed.

communities. The blasts occurred in the morning when around 2,000 Christians were meeting for worship in the two churches.

One assailant, a young boy, approached Christ Church carrying a machine gun. After shooting a policeman and church member, he blew himself up, killing another guard and two others, one of whom was a pregnant woman.

At the other church the suicide bomber attempted to scale the church wall, but a volunteer security guard pulled him down. He blew himself up killing the guard and several others.

A representative of Jamaatul Ahar told al-Jazeera News, “We promise that until an Islamic system is put into place in Pakistan, such attacks will continue.”

In Brief

State to propose death penalty for apostasy from Islam Malaysia

An Islamic hudud bill was unanimously passed by Malaysia’s Kelantan state Assembly on 19 March. Next a private bill will be presented to the Malaysian Federal parliament aiming to remove the restrictions to the enforcement of hudud which are currently in place.

Originally a hudud law was passed in Kelantan state in 1993, but has not been enforced because it was deemed unconstitutional by the Federal Parliament. The Kelantan ruling party, the Islamic Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), which has continually pressed for implementation, passed amendments to the state's Islamic criminal punishment code and now is taking a bill to the national parliament so that the obstacles to hudud will be removed and it will be fully implemented. Whether or not hudud is implemented will now depend on how Malaysia’s members of parliament vote when the bill is put before them.

Hudud (plural of hadd) refers to severe punishments specified in the Quran for certain offences that are considered to be against Allah.

They would be administered by the sharia courts. Currently, sharia court punishments are capped at a fine of 3,000 Malaysian ringgit (£550; €750; US$800), five years in prison, and six strokes of a cane. This bill would remove the current caps and would permit the Quranic punishments of amputation, stoning, lashing and execution.

Although theoretically inapplicable for non-Muslims, it effectively prevents conversion from Islam as, according to some Islamic scholars, apostasy is also a hudud crime for which the punishment is death.

Malaysia has a federal political system where states have some ability to pass their own legislation, subject to limits set by federal law. Its legal system contains elements of both secular and Islamic law, and there is an ongoing struggle about which form of law should have supremacy.

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 9

Europe urges Turkey to recognise Armenian genocide Turkey

A European Parliament motion passed in Brussels on 15 April calling Turkey “to come to terms with its past, to recognise the Armenian genocide and thus pave the way for a genuine reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples”. Adamant that “everyone should know that Turkey can never accept such a sin, such guilt”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refuses to admit that the killings constitute genocide.

President Erdogan is recorded as stating, “A Muslim would never commit genocide.”

Grieving Christian villagers attacked

by Muslim rioters over church building plans Egypt

After Friday prayers on 27 March, Muslim rioters stormed the Egyptian village of Al-Our, home to 13 of the Egyptian Christian men who were beheaded by Islamic State militants in Libya in a video released on 15 February. Enraged by a statement issued by Egypt’s President granting permission to local Christians to build a church, Muslim residents rampaged through the village shouting “No church will be built on this ground.” At least six local Christians were wounded in the attacks, three of them sustaining serious injuries.

Delhi High Court demands government report on attacks against places of worship

Islamic State replaces crosses with black jihadist flag in Iraqi churches

India

Iraq

On 29 April India’s Delhi High Court demanded a status report from the federal and Delhi governments, as well as the Delhi police commissioner, about attacks on Delhi places of worship and the protective measures taken. After six attacks against churches since December with no arrests, Advocate Reegan S Bell filed Public Interest Litigation seeking the protection of churches, which was later amended to include all places of worship.

Though the Home Ministry insists that the proper records were registered, the court has requested that a detailed report be presented on 1 July.

Islamic State (IS) released online images on 16 March showing militants destroying churches in Iraq with sledgehammers. Other pictures show fighters replacing crosses and bells from the tops of churches with the group’s black jihadist flag.

Fighters are seen removing wroughtiron crosses from the front gates of a church. It is not known which churches are shown in the images released. Islamic State has also bulldozed ancient sites and artefacts in the area.

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Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 10

Behind the Headlines

Understanding the plight of India’s Christian community India

espite assurances of freedom of religion, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – leader of the Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – has failed to protect India’s religious minorities, including Christians who have continued to suffer attacks from Hindu radicals.

D

Some typical examples In Haryana state, Hindu radicals disrupted a church prayer meeting in Faridabad on 8 March. They brought a man who accused Pastor Kumar of luring him into becoming a Christian.

Although the police did not file the case against the pastor, they told him not to hold worship services in his home.

The Hindu extremists told police that Assistant Pastor Pratab Rawat gave three people money so that they would convert In Madhya Pradesh state, about a dozen Hindu radicals attempted to storm Sunday worship on 1 March in Rampura, Alirajur, accusing the pastor of luring people into converting to Christianity. The Hindu extremists told police that Assistant Pastor Pratab Rawat gave three people money so that they would convert to Christianity. Church leaders, however, said “we have never seen these three people before.”

Analysiss

The origins of the BJP Hindutva, the ideology adopted by Hindu nationalists, began with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), an extremist who argued that pan-Islamic solidarity was the great threat to India, advocating an Indian nation and national identity based on geographical unity, racial features, and a common culture. It incorporates religions that originate from India (such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) but excludes religions that began outside the subcontinent – Christianity and Islam.

It led to a radical grass-roots organisation called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a pupil of Savarkar. Just as World War Two was starting, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who became the the second supreme chief of the RSS in 1940, wrote of his belief that India should follow the example of Nazi Germany: “To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the semitic Races — the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”1 Widespread, violent discrimination against Christians and Muslims began and, in January 1949 an RSS volunteer, Nathuram Godse, killed Mahatma Gandhi.

In response to a five-month ban on the organisation, the RSS leadership formed a political party, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980 by former members of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, attempting to create a more acceptable moderate nationalist party. It still receives support from the RSS and related nationalist groups such as Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP a Hindu nationalist nongovernment organisation) and the Bajrang Dal (the youth wing of the VHP).

Each of these groups – including the BJP - fall within the family of Hindu nationalist organisations called Sangh Parivar.

In the 1996 election the BJP-led coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gained control of the Lok Sabha (the lower house of India’s parliament), which it held for three years. During its rule there was a significant rise in Christian persecution. It gained power in the Gujarat state assembly in 1998 and has held power in a number of other states. In 2014 the BJP again gained control of the Lok Sabha.

1 Golwalkar, M S (1939) We or our nationhood defined, Nagpur, Bharat Publication, p 87

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DAWA The Islamic Strategy for Reshaping the Modern World

4 Dawa through Islamisation

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Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 ii

Introduction

Islamisation is a form of dawa that aims to convert whole societies and their structures. It can be defined as a process by which not only individuals but also groups, societies and cultures become more and more Islamic. It resembles what happened when Islam began in Arabia, which until then had been in a state of jahiliyya (ignorance of Allah’s teachings).

One aspect of Islam that makes it different from any other religion is its quest for political power. From its beginning, Islam created a fusion of politics and religion: religious doctrine sanctified political power, and political power confirmed and sustained religion.

Contemporary Muslims who place a major emphasis on the political aspects of Islam are called Islamists and their ideology Islamism. Other Muslims (traditional Muslims and liberal Muslims) who focus on personal morality and devotion were the familiar face of Islam two generations ago. However, seeds of Islamism sown in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, have burst into luxuriant growth since the 1970s, causing a great resurgence of Islam.

Islam has now become a major player on the world political stage with a power and prestige it had not enjoyed for many centuries.

By fusing politics and religion, and by using the twin concepts of dawa and jihad, Islamists are increasing the influence of Islam right across the globe. The rapid Islamisation of the West is evidence of the significant shift in power from the West to other global players, among them the bloc of Muslim-majority states funded by oil wealth. This is accompanied by a growing Islamisation of Muslim-majority states, and a drive to destabilise non-Muslim states and Islamise them.

all spheres of human activity. In this sense political Islam resembles secular totalitarian systems such as Fascism, Nazism and Marxism.

Allah’s sovereignty means that he is the only legislator for humanity and that his laws must be obeyed by all. Therefore, say Islamist scholars, sharia is the only law for the world which Muslims must implement and impose, by force if necessary, on everyone everywhere.

This new Islamist discourse is based on a return to Islam’s sacred source texts (Quran and Hadith) and on Muhammad’s model and early Muslim history. Early Islam sought political domination of the newly conquered territories and peoples and the total transformation of all their societal structures by imposing sharia. The non-Muslim population was subjected to Islamic rule through a combination of military aggression and missionary efforts.

In the early stage of Islamic history, there was a period when Muslims were a minority in the world they had conquered. This made them afraid of being overwhelmed by the conquered communities. Accordingly, sharia excluded non-Muslims from any position of power in the Islamic state. These fears have persisted until today in spite of centuries of Muslim dominance. As a result, most Muslims accept it as natural that non-Muslims should face restrictions on their right to practise their religion in public. They see it as perfectly normal to feel contempt for non-Muslims and to discriminate against them.

They expect non-Muslims to show publicly that they submit to Islam.

Populations conquered by early Islam were Islamised and their former non-Muslim identity erased over many centuries of subjugation. Minority communities who managed to retain their original non-Muslim faith (like Christians and Jews) were taught to feel grateful to the Muslim majority for tolerating their existence and not destroying them altogether.

Populations conquered by early Islam were Islamised and their former non-Muslim identity erased over many centuries of subjugation

Main Islamist doctrines supporting political Islam

Islamist teaching is derived from two important doctrines of Islam: the oneness or unity of Allah (tawhid) and the sovereignty of Allah (hakimiyya).

Islam’s doctrine of tawhid is not just a theological theory, but a political, social and economic framework for a revolutionary re-making of society everywhere according to God’s will as revealed in the Quran and sunna (the actions and words of Muhammad, as recorded in the hadith). Tawhid opposes all jahili powers and sets up a totally different Islamic way of life based on sharia. Using these doctrines, Islamists have transformed Islam into a political ideology: Islamism. Islam has shifted from a passive mode of mere religion in the Western sense to an active revolutionary mode, becoming a political tool for transforming society and state in

Dawa according to Islamists

Modern Islamist commentators put a strong emphasis on the political aspects of dawa. For them the most important goal of dawa is Islamic revival leading to the establishment of an Islamic state under sharia. These commentators focus on Islam as a comprehensive ideological system, regulating not only the private sphere and the relations between a believer and God but also the public sphere and politics. The dawa concepts pioneered by the founders of modern Islamism integrated the religious and the political aspects of Islam into one ideological whole. The founders emphasised the importance of

Pull-out changing the character of Muslim communities so as to reverse the process of Islam’s decline from its ancient glory. They worked to prepare the way for the indoctrination of the masses, the capture of all power centres, and the ultimate establishment of an Islamic state under sharia, systematically spreading Islamist ideology to an ever-wider audience.

For some Islamists today, the first priority of dawa should be establishing Islamic states under sharia in Muslim-majority countries. They focus their efforts on changing the regimes of Muslimmajority states in order to turn them into Islamic states under sharia, which can then carry dawa to the non-Muslim-majority world and if necessary enforce it by jihad.

Other Islamists engage in dawa to influence nonMuslim countries from within. They use Muslim minorities as a lever to advance the acceptance of Islam as the dominant religious, political and civilisational force in their host societies. These Islamists work at penetrating and infiltrating the power centres of non-Muslim states leading to their gradual Islamisation.

Modern Islamisation is thus aimed both at Muslims, who need to be revived by a return to original Islam as understood by Islamists, and at non-Muslims who need to be enfolded in an Islamic embrace. Islamists believe that Islamisation will bring an end to all conflict, as true peace is possible only under an Islamic political and cultural system, i.e. an Islamic state governed by sharia.

Islamisation, in whatever country it occurs, is the transformation of its entire worldview and culture from being non-Islamic to being dominated by Islam. The ultimate aim is to establish Islam’s power, honour and rule above all others in accordance with the Quranic verse: But honour belongs to God and His Messenger, and to the Believers. (Q 63:8)

The problem of Western civilisational dominance

Islamists face the challenge of Western civilisation being still dominant in the world. They are therefore committed to destroying it and replacing it by an Islamic system. Everything that hinders the advance of Islam towards what they see as its rightful, Allah-ordained position in control of every human institution in the world must be removed. To this end Islamists are dedicated to Islamising all civilisations, cultures and thought in order to restore Islam to the glory of its Golden Age in the 7th to 13th centuries.

They believe that following the present Islamist revival, the umma (the whole body of Muslims worldwide) will regain its political, intellectual and cultural dominance in the world.

Observing the decline of Western civilisation in recent decades, Islamists offer the gradual Islamisation of the West as the solution. They hope that the gradual Islamisation of culture in non-Muslim societies will create an environment

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 iii

conducive to increasing the global influence and power of Islam. The main contemporary Islamist movements, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, are dedicated to this project of dawa through Islamisation. Some among them have termed it a “civilisational jihad” that will establish Islam firmly as the dominant religion in non-Muslim states.

Thus organisational, institutional, legal, economic, educational, cultural, social and welfare efforts are not just small steps to meet the needs of Muslim individuals and the local Muslim community but are considered part of an overall strategic plan to change the character of the host state and society and establish the dominion of Islam.

Many Muslims today accept this Islamist view of a civilisational conflict between the umma and the West. Islamists believe that this confrontation started with the Crusades and continued with the spread of Western colonialism to Muslimmajority states. They hold that the West corrupted and humiliated the Muslim world and destroyed its willpower. Islamists blame the West for all problems facing modern-day Muslims, including their “backwardness” and their inability to unite and regain their former glory.

Many conferences were held in the 1980s (often with Saudi funding) to discuss the weakness of the Muslim umma. At these conferences – which remained largely unnoticed by Western observers – the idea of Islamisation was introduced as the solution. It was argued that Muslims must resist Western cultural influences, cast off defeatist attitudes and adopt instead the belligerence of Muhammad in Medina. Muslims must regain their self-confidence, affirming that they are different from the rest of the world. The umma will then be strong and united once more and Islam will regain its ancient power and glory.

The umma concept and Muslim victimhood as drivers of Islamisation

The umma concept is currently experiencing a dramatic revival owing to the rise of Islamism, the large Muslim presence in the West, and the effects of globalisation. It has become a significant driver of Islamisation.

The idea of the global Muslim nation, the umma, as one community has always had deep political implications. It expresses the groupconsciousness of all Muslims and their essential felt unity based on their shared religion. This unity transcends all cultural, ethnic and national differences. All Muslims in the world are united into this supranational umma by their submission to Allah and to his revelation through Muhammad in the Quran and sunna. Ziauddin Sardar, chair of the London-based Muslim Institute, sums up: “God is one, the Prophet is one, the ummah – the international Muslim community – is one”.¹ Hence the virtually universal belief amongst Muslims that they must support each other against non-Muslims,

Pull-out

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in spite of internal differences. The individual’s needs and desires are to be subordinate to those of the umma.

While there is much variety in Islam, there seems to be a majority consensus that the umma deserves the primary loyalty of all Muslims. For many Muslims, loyalty to the umma overrides loyalty to any nation state. Islamists utilise the umma concept to develop the idea of Muslims everywhere as global victims. They encourage Muslims to see themselves as a vulnerable and besieged community, as they were under Muhammad’s leadership in Mecca before their migration to Medina. Having developed a sense of victimhood, they can then present Islamist violence as a “liberation struggle” and thus strengthen Muslim group identity.

Secularisation and re-Islamisation

In modern times, under the impact of Western colonial rule, sharia was gradually phased out in most Muslim countries. In the more secular states usually only sharia family law was retained. At the end of the colonial period, the rise of secular and socialist forms of nationalism brought a temporary halt to traditional Muslim hostility towards non-Muslims. There were great hopes of creating new national identities across religious and ethnic divides.

Gradually this secularisation process was blocked and then reversed by the growing tide of Islamism.

As a reaction against the growth of socialism and nationalism in Egypt, the influential Muslim World League was founded in 1962 in Saudi Arabia, with a strongly Islamist agenda. Many Muslims have since renewed their hatred for the “Christian” West and their mistrust of non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries, seeing them as spies for the West and traitors to their own nations. Conspiracy theories emerged, with indigenous non-Muslims always the scapegoats. These attitudes resulted in the erosion of the hard-won freedoms gained in the colonial and early independence era.

Discrimination, persecution and attacks by armed jihadi militias on indigenous non-Muslims (Christians, Hindus, etc.) are now on the increase in many Muslim-majority states. An Islamist

government took power in Turkey in 2002, increasing the antipathy to the West and to Jews.

The “Arab Spring” of 2011 saw the secularists who initiated the uprisings quickly displaced by better organised Islamists. However in Egypt and Tunisia the Islamists soon lost political power again and it remains to be seen what the long-term result will be.

Islamic law has been reintroduced in many Muslim states in varying degrees. The official introduction of the Islamic penal code (with punishments such as amputation and stoning) has a deep symbolism for the population. It may not be always fully implemented, depending on power relations within the state and various interpretations of the legal issues.

Oil money aids Islamisation

Oil-rich Muslim countries and especially Saudi Arabia with its vast oil wealth, are playing an important part in the contemporary Islamisation process. Wahhabi Islam, the state religion of Saudi Arabia, is one of the strictest and most radical of Islamist movements and is allied to other Islamist movements such as the Salafis, Ahl-i Hadith, the Deobandis and the Jamaat-i Islami. Until recently it was also strongly allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, but has now come to see the Brotherhood as a danger to its ruling system.

Saudi oil money has been used to spread Saudi Wahhabi Islam across the world, and it has gained tremendous power in most Muslim societies, promoting a shift to a more puritan and inflexible type of Islam. It has also contributed generously to the funding of mosques, charities, dawa organisations and various Islamic institutions as well as funding most radical and violent Islamist movements around the world.

1 Ziauddin Sardar (2005) Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim, London, Granta Books, 2004, p.132.

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Partner Interview

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You will be here and you will pray “I had a dream - one Friday morning just before I woke up. This person suddenly was just in front of me and dressed in white and my head was bowed so I didn’t see his face, but He said ‘Anne, you will be here and you will pray.’ And I woke up with a feeling of some degree of disappointment. I knew it was the Lord (and) that’s all He wanted me to do.

At that very time I was trying to go to Indonesia, where I’d been before, to teach on children’s literature.

There were seven times I tried and seven times I couldn’t get there. The Lord was saying ‘Anne, you won’t get to Indonesia. You’ll be here and you will pray.’

Around the same time (2001) I went along to a seminar and I heard a talk on the Quranic justification for jihad. I sat stock still and I had a very strong sense that the Lord wanted me to speak on behalf of our persecuted brethren.

Since I’ve become a Barnabas partner for my church, I have been given a position where I can pray, leading intercessions on behalf of big congregations. I hand out magazines every two months to

Anne Willett

became a Barnabas church partner in her church in Melbourne, Australia, after she felt God had called her to pray for persecuted believers around the world. She thought being asked only to pray was disappointing, but it has led to a fulfilling and much appreciated ministry

several congregations. We also have Moments for Mission in our Englishspeaking services with particular points for prayer for our brethren who are persecuted. It’s educating people and once people know they become interested. I go to a Christian book club and all the ladies there are very well educated about Barnabas Fund and a number are passionate prayers.

We had the great privilege of having a wonderful Barnabas Fund 20th anniversary celebration at our church about a year and a half ago. It was absolutely packed. A number there heard about Barnabas Fund and they took back stories to their churches - a little bit of seed that grows.

I think Barnabas, with its information and practical work, has given me a wider, greater, more wonderful vision of God’s Kingdom. I appreciate Barnabas Fund particularly for the

marvellous books and education.

We’re educated about the enemies of our brethren but also what we can do to help those who suffer. That is a very powerful thing for me personally and the magazine really clarifies, very simply, that there is a great choice of projects to which we can give.

I’m assured that what people give does genuine good, using partners on the ground, which is about the best way you could possibly do it.

What I hear about the persecution of Christians really inspires me, and it makes me see how minuscule my suffering is - and how great is our God. The Church is triumphant.

Despite everything that comes against it in increasing numbers, it’s triumphant. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God.”

We need more Church Partners!

Hundreds of Christians volunteer for Barnabas Fund in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Would you like to know more about becoming a church partner? Have a look at: www.barnabasfund.org/get-involved/partnership.

You could also scan this code with your device.

and the Drive for a

ndia is the second most populous country in the world behind China, with 2015 estimates at 1.28 billion.

It gained independence from Britain in 1947, with the partition of the British-ruled territory into India and Pakistan. Religions have long coexisted: the Hindu majority, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, animists (Adivasis or “tribals�), Zoroastrians and a small number of Jews have lived alongside each other down the centuries. This variety of religions continues, even after partition when large numbers of Muslims moved to Pakistan.

Islam was brought to the region by Arabs in AD 711, with Asian Turks and later the Mughals ruling large parts of India until the British gained control.

Christians in Kerala in South India trace their roots back to the apostle Thomas in the 1st century and are known as St Thomas (Mar Thoma) Christians. Missionary activities by Middle Eastern Christians and later

by Western Christians have increased Christian numbers across India in the intervening centuries. Even so they have only ever been a small minority in percentage terms. Many are Dalits (below even the lowest Hindu caste and considered unclean) meaning that Christians are often very poor and despised. The other main religions, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all arose within the Indian subcontinent

and still have small relative numbers of followers in contemporary India.

Hinduism is not, in fact, a single religion at all. It consists of a variety of different devotional frameworks and practices. The term Hinduism owes much to the British need to categorise the variety of religious practice they encountered as they consolidated their rule in the 18th and 19th centuries. Hindu nationalists have, though, been happy to adopt the idea of Hinduism as defining Indian identity.

The results of the, as yet unpublished, 2011 census look likely to record the number of Hindus at less than 80%, with Muslims having increased to 14%. This is in contrast to 1951, just after partition, when Hindus were around 84% and Muslims under 10%. The number of Christians has increased since 1951 and is now estimated at over 25 million, but the Christian percentage has remained at 2% because the overall population has grown at the same time.

Christian growth

Christian mission continues to make a huge impact amongst the Dalits and also tribes who have been excluded by the Indian mainstream. For many years Indian Christians themselves have been spreading the message.

The majority of Indian Christians – 70% - live in the south, while 25% live in the north-east part of India bordering Nepal, Bangladesh, and Burma. Christians in the north-west, however, live in a more precarious

situation. In these highly populated Hindi-speaking areas, their numbers are small.

Hindu nationalism

India is officially a secular state and the Constitution of 1950 guarantees freedom of religion, but since May 2014 there has been a marked shift in public discourse. In that month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with its twelve coalition partners, led by Narendra Modi, came to power. It has encouraged anxiety on the part of the majority Hindu population about the rise in other religions, particularly Islam, creating a climate of increased aggression towards minorities.

Although only a very small minority, Christians are suffering from this attitude as, together with Muslims, they are subject to unrestrained attacks

by Hindu nationalists.

Although Hinduism has traditionally been a tolerant religion there is increasing support for Hindutva, the term for a political stance requiring all Indians to adhere to Hinduism. Minorities are subject to threats and abuse, with groups clad in saffron caps or khaki shorts seeking out and harassing or attacking those who do not fit within the Hindutva scope. Hindus believe that no one can convert to their religion; a person has to be born a Hindu. However, advocates of India as a Hindu-only country are engaged in campaign known as Ghar Wapsi or Home-Coming. The chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a rightwing non-governmental organisation

India (NGO), has said that everyone in India is Hindu, including Muslims and Christians, because it is the land of the Hindu people and civilization. Muslims and Christians are being encouraged to convert to Hinduism, or - as the Hindu nationalist call it - “re-convert”.

Christians are concerned about this threat to the diversity. The National United Christian Forum held a consultation on 17 March 2015. In a statement they said: "A nation of cultural homogeneity is an impossibility… The Church in India asserts its stake in the country’s development. As citizens and followers of Christ, we have contributed to and continue to work for social development in all spheres of national life. We are committed to protecting the dignity of the human being in this great nation."

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 13

anti-Christian violence. Going further than other states with anti-conversion laws, it has legislated that people who wish to change religion must obtain police permission. The most notorious violence occurred at Christmas 2007.

Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Panishad (VHP) members launched a series of attacks in Kandhamal District on 24 and 25 December. A total of 95 churches were burnt to the ground, together with 730 houses occupied

by Christians. They shouted slogans: “Christians must become Hindus or die” and “Kill the Christians”.

Eight months later, August 2008, saw the beginning of several more

Many BJP members, including some government ministers and Members of Parliament, have joined the call to stop appeasing Muslims and Christians, both of whom are seen as enemies of the nation and the majority community.

Re-conversion by marriage

Anti-conversion laws

Running alongside the Ghar Wapsi campaign for “re-conversion” is a debate about whether India should implement anti-conversion laws.

Under India’s constitution, all citizens have the right to “profess, practise and propagate religion”, but five of the 28 Indian states (Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh) already have anticonversion laws in force. A sixth state, Arnachal Pradesh, has passed the law, but it is not yet implemented.

Confusingly, these laws are called the “freedom of religion” laws. They make it illegal to convert someone from one religion to another by means of force, fraud or allurement, and some require anyone who has converted to inform the authorities. The legislation can easily be misused to prevent legitimate Christian evangelism. The current BJP-led coalition government has promised to introduce national legislation to curb “missionary” activity.

Violence in Orissa state

Orissa, on the north-east Indian coast, has one of the worst histories of

days of the BJP Alliance rule, to March 2015, 168 incidents of violence against Christians were recorded. Attacks are not limited to particular areas, but are spread across Indian states, with Chhattisgarh topping the list at 28 incidents, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 26, Uttar Pradesh with 18 and Telangana recording 15.

Examples include an attack in Madhota village, Chhattisgarh, where Christians were attacked and threatened with dispossession of their land and losing access to communal water supplies. Mobs chanted, “Eliminate the Christians. Bring in the Kingdom of Lord Rama.” On an another occasion nationalists brought a picture of the Hindu god Bajrant Bali and hung it on the bore well, announcing that Christians were not allowed to drink the water. Christians have been injured and threatened with death if they do not “re-convert” to Hinduism.

weeks of anti-Christian violence, with more church buildings and Christian homes destroyed. Christian schools and offices were also vandalised or burned. Christians were attacked, church leaders were beaten up and women were raped. Many Christians had to flee into the jungle for safety.

At least 60,000 Christians were left homeless after the two bouts of violence and around 100 Christians died. Sporadic low level persecution of Christians in the state has continued ever since.

Recent persecution

Opposition to Christians takes a number of forms: violence, social discrimination and attempts at forcible “conversion” to Hinduism. Christians are often attacked while they are meeting for worship. In the first 300

Another approach to re-conversion is less violent, but cynically exploits the emotions of young women. Hindus are being encouraged to adopt the same approach as some Indian Muslims, who have been accused of ”love jihad”, where a Muslim man seeks out a non-Muslim woman to marry, so that she will convert to Islam. Right-wing Hindus are encouraging Hindu men to use the same strategy: find a Christian or Muslim woman to marry. It is seen as a pious act, increasing the numbers of Hindus and ensuring that children will be brought up in the religion.

Along similar lines, some nationalists are encouraging Hindu women to give birth to between four and ten children to increase the Hindu population.

A dangerous situation

While on the one hand there is rapid church growth in parts of India, on the other, the situation for Indian Christians is difficult and dangerous, and looks unlikely to improve in this respect, as they continue to bear the brunt of Hindutva ideology.

See p 16 for an interview with Indian Christian leader Canon Vinay Samuel.

See p 10 for an analysis of Hindu nationalist organisations.

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Grace upon Grace

The Lord is doing amazing things in the lives of persecuted Christians, despite the difficulties they face. Here are just a few of the ways in which He has blessed our brothers and sisters recently.

Muslim friendship secures Christians’ amazing escape from Idlib

Many Christians were forced to flee Idlib Idlib is an important Syrian city close to the country’s border with Turkey.

Government forces were positioned to defend the city from the early part of this year, and when Islamic State (IS) invaded the city without warning, serious fighting broke out. In the midst of the violence and chaos, with many innocent citizens fleeing the peril, one small group of Christians whose area of the city came under fire on 24 April had a remarkable escape from death.

“Gunfire rang out everywhere … we were shocked, we couldn’t believe what was happening … people were running in the streets… there were

“Gunfire rang out everywhere … we were shocked, we couldn’t believe what was happening” no phones, no internet, no electricity, so it was really hard to communicate with anyone.” These were the words of a Christian eye-witness describing the attack on Idlib.

Only able to formulate their plan using word of mouth, one convoy

of 21 Christian families - 72 men, women and children - fled Idlib in eleven cars, but soon encountered a makeshift roadblock mounted by armed non-Syrian Muslims. The ten men robbed the Christians, and led the convoy of cars to a remote area. There, the families were told to leave their cars and stand in a line; the armed men began to taunt and humiliate the Christians and Christ, saying it was time to know “the real god” and be Muslims. The leader of the group began wielding an iron bar, making it clear just how the Christians would be “persuaded” to renounce their faith. The Christians realised that their lives were in grave danger.

Suddenly, in the midst of the leader’s menaces, a motorcyclist stumbled unexpectedly upon the scene. He turned out to be one of the Christians’ Muslim neighbours, “Mustafa”. He knew all of the Christians personally, and pleaded with the armed men on their behalf, saying that Muslims and Christians got along together in Idlib. The danger of the moment was acute: “We were close to death, we felt so afraid, but God didn’t leave us,” said the Christians afterwards.

After six hours’ detention, the Christians were allowed to go home, and next day they left Idlib with the help of Muslim friends.

Thank God for their deliverance from this awful situation, through the courage of good-hearted Syrian Muslims.

Grace

Tanzanian government forced to review Islamic courts bill Christians across Tanzania welcomed Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda’s promise to review the government’s decision to table a bill to introduce Kadhi (Islamic) courts in the country’s judiciary after opposition arose among Tanzanian Christian MPs on 29 March.

The bill proposed the introduction of Kadhi courts across mainland Tanzania to deal with family matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and family rights among the country’s Muslim population. The Kadhi courts bill is included in proposed legislation for a new constitution. A national referendum on the constitution, planned for 30 April, was postponed at the last minute.

A Tanzanian Christian leader – “Ally” – told Barnabas Fund that, the bill proposed that all rulings made

by Kadhi courts must be enforced by state bodies and cannot be appealed or referred to the High Court, thus granting governmental authority to Muslims to make rulings on these matters. He stated that “Christians refused, and vowed to vote no. They said the secular state and secular constitution states that religious affairs are a personal matter and that the government must not run, establish or enforce any religious law!”

A Church and a mosque in Tanzania

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Opportunity to speak: UN Security Council debates Christian Persecution in the Middle East for the first time

A United Nations Security Council meeting Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Pete Souza Christian leaders in Syria and Iraq approached the United Nations Security Council for the first time about Christian persecution in the Middle East. Addressing the Security Council on 27 March on the plight of displaced Iraqi Christians, Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako appealed to the international community to “ensure their rights in their lands, and [enable] them to return home and resume their lives in a normal way”.

Reminding his addressees that this year marks the centenary of the peak of the genocide of Assyrians and

Armenians, Patriarch Sako told the Council that “we are living a similar catastrophic situation” today. “The Islamic extremist groups refuse to live with non-Muslims,” he said.

The 27 March Security Council meeting marked the first time that the persecution of Christians has been debated at United Nations headquarters in New York. The United Nations Security Council consists of 25 members from different nations, including China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Reeling from Lahore bombings, Pakistani Christians receive comfort from President and Prime Minister in Easter addresses In a welcome display of inclusion, Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif extended Easter greetings to Christians in Pakistan as they celebrated the resurrection of Christ on 5 April.

Lifting up the status of Pakistan’s Christian community, President Mamnoon said, “The Christians as well as all minorities of Pakistan are equal citizens of the state and entitled to equal rights… They are a law-abiding and loyal community and we are proud of their tremendous contributions to the advancement and development of the country.”

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated the inclusive comments when alluding to terrible attacks on two churches in Lahore the previous month that claimed the lives of 19 people. He said: “This year Easter falls at a time when the need for achieving interfaith harmony in Pakistan is quite earnest… The forces of discord are trying to create a rift in the fabric of Pakistani society with the nefarious aim to cause serious harm to it.” Although Easter greetings are an annual event, in light of recent persecution, Christians were particularly encouraged by this year’s remarks.

Biblical Reflections

Being Good Samaritans (Luke 10:25-37)

Canon Vinay Samuel explains the current persecution of Christians in India under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led coalition government, which came to power in May 2014

Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 16

S

omeone is called “a good Samaritan” when he responds to those in need without waiting to be requested to help, and pays the costs from his own pocket. While people from different religious and national backgrounds do the neighbourly acts of good Samaritans, the origins of such a response are in the teaching of Jesus. It is a particularly Christian way of caring for the suffering, the vulnerable and victims of violence.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) Jesus responds to a lawyer’s question: Who is my neighbour? The lawyer was asserting that there are limits to caring for those in need.

These could be legal, ritual and social. Caring for victims of violence is not as simple and straightforward as it sounds (v.29).

The response of Jesus is to place the primary focus not on the person in trouble but on the believer who is called to love God and love his neighbour as expressions of faith in God and his identity as a child of God (v.27). Our identity as children of God implies that we are neighbours to those in need. Further, Jesus shows how the limitations of ritual purity that may have constrained the priest and legal uncertainty that possibly prevented the Levite from responding to an urgent need must be swept away. As children of God our neighbours are any in need whether near to us or beyond social, ethnic and national boundaries (v.36).

The parable also teaches that the goal of a caring response is to ensure the restoration of the victim to a normal and full life. The Good Samaritan provides for long-term care (v.35).

We must note here how Paul sees this call to care for others. In Gal 6:10 he writes “let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers”. While our concern is for all in need we are called to be particularly concerned for Christian believers when we see them in desperate need. Today our response to Christians facing genocide, homelessness, hunger and violence needs to have high priority.

Such a response to our brothers and sisters in Christ enlarges our heart to embrace the whole world of need. I am also very moved to see that Christian giving from New Testament times has never just been to people we know or “like us” but to those suffering and struggling in far off lands, very different from us, who we are never likely to see or meet.

This way of being a neighbour is uniquely Christian and is a key part of Christian witness to the Gospel.

Interview

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Q. What kind of pressures and persecution do Indian Christians face?

There are increasing numbers of attacks on church buildings and on Christians gathered for worship in church and at home, and attacks on people going out informally to share the Gospel have increased.

But the Hindu nationalists are making some very serious mistakes. They’re using these very, very violent little groups to attack churches. And the government is trying to undercut Christian social engagement in working with the poor because they’re terrified that Christians have too close a relationship with the poor and are too engaged with human rights and environmental issues.

Q. Has it always been like this?

No, it‘s recent. Persecution has increased considerably during the past ten years.

There seems to be more aggressive and open persecution since the formation of the BJP-led coalition government.

Q: How has the present situation arisen?

You can find the roots of what is happening today in the World Congress of Religions over a hundred years ago in Chicago. A speech about Hinduism by an Indian called Swami Vivekananda talked about its plurality, its generosity and its broad universal embrace.

So Indians became very confident about both their religion and their philosophy.

But certain segments took it up to become very domineering and dogmatic. That is the tradition that now rules the country. These people have become aggressive against any religious minority, not because they are a threat – threat is used as an excuse - but because they want Hinduism to define what it is to be an Indian and the role of religious minorities.

Q: The 2011 census says that the Hindu population has dropped below 80% and the Muslim population has risen to 14%.

Christian numbers remain at a much lower 2%.

They are worried about Islamic numbers which are officially 150 million (the third largest Muslim population in the world). They are also worried about Islamic willingness to be suicide bombers. That’s a terrible fear.

Q: Are Christians suffering as a by-product of the fear of Islam?

Yes, they’re a soft target because there are fewer of them and they don’t fight back. Christians are seen as peaceful people and as peacemakers.

The government doesn’t stop it because they want to teach Islam a lesson. They’re saying, “if we can do this to Christians we can do it to you”.

But even if the BJP is voted out of power, they have unleashed something they cannot control. The Christians will be on the receiving end of persecution for at least the next 15 years.

Q: How can Barnabas supporters help?

Pray that God will protect Christians in India because many are very poor. They become targets because they have no economic power.

Encourage the West to continue to put pressure on the government in India to fulfil its claims to be a modern democracy. Write to members of parliament saying, “Please raise this issue. We are concerned about Christians in India.”

Please give to Barnabas projects that support persecuted Christians in India. They make a real difference to people’s lives.

Canon Vinay Samuel

To see a video with more comment on India from Vinay Samuel scan this with your device or go to www.barnabasfund.org/vs-interview

the vice-chair of the board of trustees of Barnabas Fund UK, was brought up in Hyderabad and worked as a pastor in Bangalore for 25 years. He divides his time between Oxford and India. He was a founder of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and works on community development initiatives in India.

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Barnabas Aid July/August 2015 18

Petition presented to Parliament

d Barnabas Fun Australia celebrates 10 years

(Australia) arnabas Fund On 5-6 June B versary at its 10 year anni Ltd celebrated d with ng in Queenslan a special meeti nteer supporters, volu around 35 key aders. s and church le representative l Board the Internationa The trustees of ere w l Internationa of Barnabas Aid untry co with Barnabas present, along s te esenting upda coordinators pr eir ojects within th on Barnabas pr hdeo ok s. Dr Patrick So specific region talk on e ot allenging keyn presented a ch gies te ra ational and st ans Barnabas Intern ti is hr persecuted C slake, needed to assist er K e world. Carolin so al throughout the , ts ec irector of Proj hat “W International D of ew nt overvi lle ce ex an d te presen d where w we operate an Barnabas is, ho .” we are involved

On Thursday 28 May, the Federal Member for Petrie (north of Brisbane), Luke Howarth, presented our latest Save the Christians of the Middle East petition to Parliament. We had 7,350 signatures suppo rting this. On 1 June it was presented to the Petitions Committee. All of us here at Barnabas Fund would like to thank everyone who signed this important petition. As always, your prayers and support are greatly appreciated. Please continue to pray for our suffering brothers and sisters of the Middle East; pray that the Lord will protect them during this time of trouble. You may like to view a YouTube video of Luke Howarth MP making the parliamentary presentation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw4m2R5niE .

Speaker, the nting the petition to the Luke Howarth MP prese Hon. Bronwyn Bishop.

SCAW save the date reminder !

- 1-8 November Don’t forget to mark the dates of this year’s Suffe ring Church Action Week on your church calendar. Th is year’s SCAW will take pla ce from Sunday 1 Novem ber to Sunday 8 November, with the Barnabas Fund International Day of Pr ayer for the Persecuted Church on Saturday 7 Novembe r. This year’s theme is “St ruck Down but Unconquered ”, based on 2 Corinthian s 4:8-12. Keep an eye out for the September/Octob er 2015 issue of Barnabas Aid magazine as it will be our Suffering Church Actio n Week edition. It will co ntain ideas of how you can get involved as well as resou rces for your local church.

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MAG 07/15

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Barnabas Fund Australia Limited is a Charitable Institution however gifts are not Tax Deductible ABN 70 005 572 485

Suffering Church Action Week

1-8 Nov 2015 Barnabas Fund International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Saturday 7 Nov 2015

Suffering Church Action Week

Surviving the Forgotten Armenian Genocide A moving personal story Smpat Chorbadjian. Edited by Patrick Sookhdeo This book provides a compelling narrative of one man’s experience during the Armenian genocide in the period of World War 1. In this rare eye-witness account, the author reveals, with frank simplicity the appalling hardships he suffered as a Christian living through a genocide. The book challenges the reader to develop a thoughtful, prayerful approach to contemporary situations in which Christians face persecution.

ISBN: 978-0-9916145-7-8 | RRP: £8.99 | Paperback | No. of pages: 136

To order this book, visit www.barnabasfund.org/shop.

Alternatively, please contact your nearest Barnabas Fund office (addresses on inside front cover).

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