Algerian authorities seal village church

Barnabas Fund, 13 November 2018

Authorities in the village of Azaghar, south-east of Algiers, sealed a church building in October, falsely claiming that it failed to comply with health and safety regulations.

It was sealed despite the 300-strong congregation installing fire exits and fire extinguishers in response to an earlier request. The church has a powerful ministry to local Muslims.

In practice, authorities have typically allowed churches registered with official religious organisations and even non-registered Christian groups to meet without needing specific permission. However, some churches have been closed in 2018, for alleged breaches of health and safety, or because authorities claim they are not properly registered.

The church in Azaghar is thought to be the fourth Christian place of worship shut down in 2018.

Turkey arrests another foreign church worker

Barnabas Fund, 30 October 2018

David Byle, who has lived for the past 18 years in Turkey, was arrested on 13 October during a routine ID check at an Ankara train station. After interrogation David was released the next day but ordered to leave the country within 15 days by Turkish officials. It is not yet known if David has left Turkey.

Over a period of eleven years, this is the fourth time that David has been arrested. The first occasion was in 2007 when police accused him of “missionary activity, disturbing the police, and insulting Islam”. The charges were dropped, but he was arrested again in 2009 and 2016.

Protestant Christians in Turkey report a rise in recent years in hate crimes and hate speech. Other Christians have suffered though incidents such as the confiscation of many church-owned properties.  In February 2018, the European parliament expressed serious concern about the lack of freedom of religion in Turkey “including the increased discrimination against Christians and other religious minorities”.

One Scotland’s “hate crime” posters

Barnabas Fund, 9 October 2018

Barnabas Fund called on the Scottish police to withdraw billboard posters launched by One Scotland on 26 September targeting “hate crime”; the posters appear to incite religious prejudice.

On 7 October the Sunday Times reported Barnabas Fund’s criticism of the campaign as a form of “state-sponsored hatred” that unfairly accuses people of religious faith.

A One Scotland poster reads: “Dear Bigots, you can’t spread your religious hatred here. End of sermon. Yours, Scotland.”

Using the word “sermon” seems to target religious groups including Christians, Jews and Muslims. Even the lettering used in one poster reinforces this association, being very similar to well-known typefaces used in some historic Bible imprints.

Barnabas had received complaints from Christians that the posters, “single out religious believers and call them out as ‘bigots’ without any real qualification”.

Barnabas Fund has never before felt it necessary to make a formal complaint of this kind in the UK. This form of state-sponsored prejudice is something that Barnabas is more used to encountering in countries where Christians are marginalised and persecuted minorities.

Home Office stance on Syrian Christian refugees

Barnabas Fund, 25 September 2018

The Home Office may be responding to calls to recognise the plight of Syrian Christian refugees.

After a Barnabas Fund Freedom of Information request, the Home Office revealed that in the second quarter of 2018, ten Syrian Christians were resettled in the UK, an improving situation compared to last year, when only eleven Syrian Christians were resettled for the whole of 2017.

In the first quarter of 2018, the UN recommended 1,358 Syrian refugees for resettlement in the UK – only four were Christians.  The Home Office refused all the Christians.

Christians constituted around 10% of Syria’s pre-war population and have been singled out for attack by jihadist rebel groups. Christians still make up less than 1% of the Syrian nationals resettled in the UK to date.

Nine killed in shelling of Syrian Christian town

Barnabas Fund, 11 September 2018

Nine civilians from the Christian-majority Syrian town of Mhardeh died on Friday 7 September, when shells or rockets fired from a rebel-controlled region hit built up areas. According to local sources, a further 20 people were reportedly injured in the attack on the town, which is located around 14 miles north-west of the city of Hama.

Throughout the conflict Christian civilian areas in Syria have been deliberately targeted with rocket attacks and shelling by jihadist rebel groups, although these attacks have gone largely unreported by Western media.

Egypt – the Return of a young Christian woman

Barnabas Fund, 10 July 2018

Christians in Zefta, Egypt, have celebrated the surprise return of a young Christian woman kidnapped on 24 May.

Amany Magdi, 20, went missing on her way to an end-of-year University exam.  Police told her parents that Amany had converted to Islam and refused to let them see her.

Dozens of Christians protested in the town’s streets, calling for the safe return of the student.

 But Amany made a surprise phone call to her family a month later and told them she was on her way home. Amany’s overjoyed father lifted her on to his shoulders after being reunited with her and carried her home through the streets.

Scores of Christian girls are kidnapped in Egypt each year, before being forced to convert to Islam and marry a Muslim man.

Iraqi Christians rebuilding lives under threat

Barnabas Fund, 26 June 2018

Christians in northern Iraq live with the daily threat of Muslim violence.

Shaqlawa was a Christian-majority town until the 1960s. Today, there are 200 Christian families and 10,000 Muslim ones.

Violence against Christians began years before the rise of Islamic State. In 1997, a Christian man and his father were tortured and murdered by a mob of Muslim Kurds, their bodies cut into pieces and thrown into the garden of a Christian family. The murders were never investigated.

Islamic State desecrated and destroyed Christian homes and churches in northern Iraq.

 “Today there are some peaceful interactions between Christians and Muslims. Face to face all is good, but if an Imam calls a person an infidel, it all changes.”

According to sharia, “People of the Book” (i.e. Christians and Jews) are permitted to practise their faith in areas under Muslim rule on condition they submit to a second-class status in society, keeping many humiliating rules and recognising that they have been subjugated by the Muslims.

Barnabas Fund and religious freedom, Barnabas Fund, 5 June 2018

Though their major emphasis has been on the persecuted church abroad, Barnabas Fund has warned EU Parliament members, in a first-time debate in the European Parliament, that religious freedom is one generation away from being lost in Europe.

Their Chief Executive stated, “You can’t pick and choose which types of freedom you want to defend.  Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, academic freedom or freedom of religion. You must defend all of them. Those freedoms are only one generation away from being lost.”

He, and other speakers, highlighted recent instances of violence, marginalisation, and discrimination against Christians across Europe.

It was Barnabas Fund’s campaign for “Our Religious Freedom” that prompted the setting up of the meeting at the European Parliament.

Vigilance required by Christian minorities

 Barnabas Fund, 10 May 2018

The United States recently announced that its embassy in Israel moves from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as from Monday 14 May 2018.

There has been widespread criticism of this move, especially from Muslims. It should be noted that Ramadan starts this year on 16 May, which often sees heightened tensions and violence against non-Muslim minorities.

Previous triggers have generated significant Islamist violence against others around the world, especially against Christians and Christian buildings. Christians in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have often paid the price.

 Rushdie’s publication of The Satanic Verses novel, and the case of the satirical cartoons in Denmark come to mind.