Verfolgung

Matti (name changed) from Iraq was born into a Christian family and loves Jesus ? but his ID card says he is a Muslim. This has stopped Matti from living the life he wants to live, including having a family of his own. And he is not the only Christian affected by this law. But thanks to you, lawyers like Mr Youhanna are fighting to restore their true identity.

Iraqi law forbids a person from changing their religion from ?Muslim? to ?Christian? on their official ID. Believers who find themselves in this situation can be extremely isolated: treated with suspicion by the Christian community, while also rejected by Muslims.

But there is hope. Mr Youhanna is a lawyer in Iraq who gives legal counsel to Christians who suffer this discrimination.

?Imagine you are a young man, aged 17 or 20, and because of your ID, you can?t get married or access the education you want or go to church ? all because it is written on your ID that you are a Muslim and you have to stay like that. And if you decide to change your religion, you don't have the right to do so,? Mr Youhanna explains.

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International Christian Concern (ICC) learned that police officials in India?s Karnataka state banned a community of Christians from gathering for worship services indefinitely. The officials justified this unconstitutional action by claiming that none of the approximately 50 Christians were Christian by birth and must have been coercively or fraudulently converted to Christianity.

On January 4, 2021, 15 Christian families in Bannimardatti village, located in the Hassan District, were summoned to a meeting with the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) along with other police officials. At the meeting, the DSP asked the Christians to show evidence that they were Christian and accused them of collecting government benefits as both Christians and Hindus.

The DSP then banned the Christians from gathering for worship in Bannimardatti village. The official justified this order by claiming none of the Christians in Bannimardatti village were Christian at birth and falsely claimed they were coercively or fraudulently converted to Christianity.

?This is the final attempt of Hindu radicals using the state police to clamp down on Christian activities,? a local Christian told ICC on the condition of anonymity. ?They have tried everything including social boycotts and physical beatings. However, local Christians remained faithful in the midst of continued harassment.?
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During the Covid-19 pandemic, many of us experienced a little of what it is like to be confined. But for some persecuted Christians, their ‘lockdown’ is much more severe and long-lasting. So how do you cope if you are labelled as an enemy of the government and thrown in jail? How do you live out your faith in solitary confinement, where it’s just you and God?

Mojtaba from Iran faced that challenge. Arrested for leading a secret house church, he was incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison for over three years. In the darkness of his prison cell, God was present and at work, but Mojtaba didn’t see it that way at first.

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A family wonderfully transformed – and you played a massive role. Abnober is from Colombia. When he got involved with the wrong crowd as a youngster, his parents sent him to the Open Doors Children’s Centre. Little did they know that this one decision would change the whole family.

At just 12 years old, Abnober – who grew up in a broken home where his father was a heavy drinker – got involved with the wrong crowd. Drugs and alcohol became his comfort.
Whilst his mother believed in God, she didn’t practise her faith for fear of persecution. The family were part of a tribe where refusal to participate in traditional festivals and activities makes you a ‘traitor’ who will bring bad luck. Preaching is prohibited and threats to close or burn churches are constant.
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Dieses Wochenende läuft einmalige Aktion gegen Verbreitung Covid in unserem Land. Ich bin sehr froh, dass unsere Leute begriffen, es wir Hilfe für alle sein. Auf diese Weise können wir stoppen die Pandemie. Es kostet zwar viel Geld, aber ich hoffe es wird seine Wirkung an Gesundheitszustand unseres Volkes haben.
Dazu musste aber ganzen Volk zusammenarbeiten. Wir mussten genug Ärzte finden und freiwillige Helfer, die Daten eingeben haben und die Scharen von Leuten organisierten. Damit nicht zu viele Leute auf ein Testplatz zusammenströmen machte jemand Webseite Ich bin an der Reihe, wo wir sehen konnten wie viele Leute auf dem Platz warten. Natürlich es gibt viele Leute die es abweigern wollten. Staat konnte es nicht befehlen, aber machte solche Einschränkungen, dass die Leute lieber Testen akzeptierten. Nicht alle, aber fast alle. Wer Covid positiv ist, darf nicht weg vom Hause gehen. Das gilt in vielen Ländern. Aber für diese Woche gilt dass auch ganze Familie, die mit solcher Person zu Hause lebt, darf nicht raus gehen. Wer nicht Testen akzeptiert, ist bewertet als Covid positiv, also muss zu Hause bleiben.
Leute kamen in großen Strömen. Aber dank vieler Testplätze lief es reibungslos. In unserer Stadt waren etwa 100- 200 Leute auf einmal auf dem Platz. Also wir mussten etwa 1 bis 2 Stunden warten, aber das kann man einmal akzeptieren, wenn es ganzem Volk hilft. In Großstädten haben genutzt auch ander Weise von Testen. In Košice benutzten auch Flugplatz damit sie Stau in der Stadt vermeiden. In Bratislava funktioniere auch drive-in Testen, das heißt Testen direkt im Auto.
Erfolg von gestern? Ich denke bis 2 % positivgetesteten Leute ist sehr schöne Nummer. Antigenteste zwar decken nicht alle Fälle, aber es ist besser als nichts. Nächste Wochenende wird Testen nochmals laufen, damit noch andere positive Fälle entdeckt werden. Ich denke, das ist Weg wie kann man Pandemie halten. Gott wird uns schützen.

An unlikely encounter led to Alya, from a Muslim background in Syria, giving her life to Jesus. Here’s her story, and how your gifts and prayers are helping Syrian believers like her.

Alya has had to escape a terrible situation more than once. She, her husband and their five children fled Deir Ez-Zor in 2012, because of Syrian rebels. They were in Raqqa for two years when so-called Islamic State (IS) claimed it as their capital. Alya’s family were all Muslims, but this wouldn’t protect them.

“We saw a lot of terrible things," says Alya. "One day I was heading to a shop, and they were beheading people.” Some of Alya’s memories of what she witnessed during this time are too distressing to share with Open Doors supporters. Worst of all for her family, one of her sons went missing. They only found out seven months later that he’d died in a bus bombing.

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Over the past two years, I have traveled frequently to the Middle East and worked as an international missionary and humanitarian under my grandmother, Dr. Michelle Corral.

My eyes were opened and my cultural understanding was deepened.

I have gained a new understanding of people and a new sensitivity to social norms.

Although America is a melting pot of people from all nations, it is no secret that most of the people living here are Westernized, and American society makes it easy to mindlessly stereotype people of different cultures.

Being American and Christian, there are specific areas of the Middle East where I must be ultra-sensitive to how I behave as to not offend nor draw attention to myself.

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Ani has been hearing God’s call since she was 13 years old. With frequent interaction with Christian friends, sometimes she would hear Bible verses running through her head. Even when she was only an elementary school student, she was curious about faith. One time, a teacher talked about Heaven in class. Little Ani asked, “Where is Heaven?” Her teacher only responded, “Heaven is above.” Ani was not satisfied with that answer and asked for more details. What do we do in Heaven? Who can go to Heaven? What does Heaven look like? Unfortunately, the teacher was unable to answer any further.

Not far from her house lived a Christian family with a daughter. Ani often played with her and sometimes would even stay at her home. Naturally, she compared this family with her own. She noticed a lot of differences: their family is very harmonious and she was impressed. They always prayed together in the morning when they woke up, during meals, and before they ended the day. She could tell that they loved each other.

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How many terrible things can happen to one person?

And how many miracles?

Hearing Eun Hye’s* story is a bit dizzying – because half the time, you’re wondering how a person can sustain so many appalling incidents and still keep going. And the other half of the time, you are marvelling at God’s interventions and His plan for Eun Hye.

Eun Hye’s grandmother had told her a little bit about ‘Hananim’, God – an invisible Father who would protect her. She didn’t know the full truth of the gospel, but knew enough to whisper a prayer to Him when she was alone at the kotjebi camp. That only happened in the disgusting toilet.

A kotjebi camp is for North Korean street children – Eun Hye had ended up there when her parents went to China to find her older sisters, who had gone missing, and her uncle couldn’t afford to feed her. The authorities didn’t know anything about her secret faith; the horrendous conditions she was living in as a 16-year-old were simply the fate of many children who didn’t have any resources or people to support them.

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A question mark follows Lina wherever she goes. She doesn’t know who kidnapped her husband the first time. She doesn’t know who threatened to kill her son. Her husband’s second disappearance remains a mystery. She doesn’t recognize the man stalking her.

But there is one thing she does know—life is exhausting, and it wasn’t always that way.

Before civil war erupted in Syria eight years ago, Lina lived a comfortable life with her husband. Although she had a one-year-old son, she managed a successful hairdressing business. Meanwhile, Lina’s husband worked as an international merchant.

The war suddenly brought normal life to a halt. Two years later, Lina had another son and the family was fleeing their home.

They settled into a new village, but quickly realized that safety was fleeting. Again, the war closed around them. The conflict was evolving faster than the family could understand. It was impossible to keep track of community allegiances. Was it ISIS? Was it al-Nusra? Was it the government? No one knew.

Despite these challenges, Lina and her family managed to live in relative safety for a year. But everything changed when her husband was kidnapped. The war had created a sense of hyperawareness in everyone. People knew her husband was a merchant—and wanted his money.

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God is using miraculous healing to bring people to Christian faith in India, praise the Lord! We read many instances of Jesus healing in the Gospels, and He is still blessing people in the same way. Here are three stories from India of miraculous healings that led to faith in Christ.

It’s amazing that Raman, Raj and Meeta* have become believers – but for them, and millions of Indian Christians like them, the story doesn’t end there. India is number 10 on the Open Doors World Watch List in 2019, and anti-conversion laws are becoming more common – laws that are often used as an excuse to harass or attack Christians. These believers’ new faith often makes them the target for persecution – and they need your support and prayers to help strengthen their faith.

HEALED AND HEALED AGAIN: RAMAN’S STORY

When he was nine, Raman became ill. His sickness made him weak and he would frequently collapse – and it made him doubt that any of the Hindu gods his family believed in actually existed: “At that time, I was sure that there was no god. If there were, why did I have to suffer like this?”



At this point, he says, he began to hear evil voices. They whispered dark thoughts to him and urged him to carry out terrible acts, such as attacking others and even killing himself. He was a danger to himself and others, and so villagers advised his mother to chain him up for the safety of the community. Raman was chained up for months. Nobody knew how to help him.

Finally, Raman’s mother was advised to take him to church. She did, and Christians prayed for him. Within a month, praise the Lord, Raman was healed completely! His mother and sister converted from Hinduism to Christianity – but Raman wasn’t interested in becoming a Christian.

Seven years later, Raman had a terrible accident. He was hit by a truck when motorcycling, and severely injured – even close to death. The pastor of his mother and sister’s church prayed for him, along with many members of the congregation.

After three weeks, Raman was awake and walking with crutches. While others praised God, Raman was dissatisfied: “I looked awful, I had scars on my face and I had to walk with crutches. I didn’t feel happy at all. I told my Mum, ‘If God has really healed me, then I want to walk without those crutches.’”

She prayed with him, and continued to pray for several days.

“Within a week, all the strength came back into my legs. That was the moment I realised that Jesus had healed me.”

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Egypt’s Copts are still reeling from a second bus attack in two years on the desert road to a monastery in Minya and asking why there was no protection for them.

It should have been a joyful day. On Friday 2 November a Coptic family had celebrated the baptisms of two little boys, four-month-old Emile and 5-month-old Noufir, which had taken place in the morning at St Samuel’s monastery. In a cheerful mood, listening to Christian songs in the bus, they started their journey back home. Then, suddenly, guns were fired from a four-wheel drive that had come alongside the bus, carrying four masked men who looked like soldiers.

The 28 family members on board all ducked for cover, including Sameh Nabil, who was driving the bus, and Ibrahim Youssef, who was sitting next to him.

“I felt responsible for my passengers, I just had to keep them safe,” Nabil told a contact of the Christian charity Open Doors International two weeks after the incident. “So I drove as fast as I could, but it didn’t stop the terrorists. They managed to break one of the windows with their shooting. Then I sat down on the floor of the bus, but I pressed the accelerator with all the strength I had, trying to escape.”

Panic broke out in the bus. “When the shooting started, all the passengers started screaming,” Youssef said. “I got off my seat and sat down on the floor of the bus to avoid the bullets, and others were doing the same. They were terrible moments. We just screamed and asked God to protect us.”

Then the attackers noticed a minibus from Minya approaching, about 300 metres behind Nabil’s bus, which diverted their attention, allowing Nabil to escape and drive the bus to safety. No-one was killed on Nabil’s bus, although some of the family members sustained serious injuries.

But on the other bus, seven members of one family, including two children, were killed.

Nabil and Youssef said they grieved with the bereaved family and that their escape was a miracle. “God protected us and rescued us from death. I was driving at an excessive speed, while sitting on the floor of the bus, and still the bus stayed steadily on the road,” Nabil said.

When they arrived at the checkpoint at the beginning of the desert road, “there were two buses waiting to go to the monastery from there, but I warned them to go back”, Nabil said.

This time police were manning the checkpoint, unlike in the early morning hours when they had passed the checkpoint, he added.

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Christian teenager, Romina*, was groomed, kidnapped and held against her will by an Islamic leader intent on converting her to Islam. Now Romina and her family face the shame and stigma their society attaches to her kidnapping.

When Romina was young she went to church with her family. But when she reached high school her family decided she should stop going. “When there was a church service, there would always be groups of Muslim boys in the neighbourhood waiting for us girls,” Romina said. “They made dirty remarks and were trying to hook up. My family didn’t like that and decided I should no longer be exposed to these boys.”



What her family didn’t realise was that living in a Muslim-dominated society had already impacted their family. “My older brother always had friends around,” Romina said. “He and his friends might have been Christian by name but they treated me with a Muslim mentality. Because I was a girl my brother felt entitled to humiliate me in front of his friends.”

Romina felt that her mother always took her brother’s side, leaving her hurt and vulnerable. One person she could always go to was Ahmed*, her Muslim friend. Sweet and understanding, he was always willing to listen to her problems.

One night, her brother lashed out and hit her. Crying, Romina called Ahmed to hear a friendly voice. “Wait there,” he said. “I’m picking you up. You shouldn’t go back inside that house.”

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Hussein, a 68-year-old Sheikh (Muslim leader) from Uganda, is facing a fatwa (death sentence) after publicly acknowledging that he has become a Christian. He had kept his faith a secret for ten years.

COMING ACROSS 'ISA'

Hussein grew up in a Muslim home and started attending Islamic classes from the age of seven. After he finished school in 1977 he was granted a scholarship for further studies in Saudi Arabia. There he had exposure to radical Islam, which never sat well with him.

While there, he also came across reference to Isa (the Arabic translation of Jesus) in the Quran and Jesus Christ in the Bible as part of his Islamic Apologetics studies. He started questioning Islam, which worried his lecturers.

Soon after the fall of Ugandan dictator President Idi Amin Dada, Hussein lost his scholarship and was deported to Uganda. Hussein started teaching Arabic and Islam at local schools and later became the leader of one of the biggest mosques in the district. But his heart remained restless, and even after 30 years, he still wanted to find out more about Jesus.
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