Release International, September 21, 2020

 The wife of abducted Malaysian pastor Raymond Koh has vowed to press relentlessly for his release, calling for international efforts to set him free to be continued – and for prayers for her family, which has been under surveillance.

 Pastor Koh was abducted in broad daylight in Malaysia in February 2017 by a disciplined snatch squad. A public inquiry has pointed the finger at the authorities.  Hooded men ran towards Pastor Koh’s car and shattered his windscreen, before the entire convoy was driven away.

Meanwhile the Human Rights Commission has resumed its inquiry into Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth who went missing in 2016. The inquiry was put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hilmy was investigated after converting from Islam to Christianity. The pastor and his wife disappeared after he inquired about changing his religion on his identity card from Muslim to Christian.  The state bars Muslim citizens from converting to another faith.

Raymond Koh, an Evangelical Free Church pastor, set up Hope Community to help the poor in the capital Kuala Lumpur.  The authorities suspected him of attempting to convert Muslims.  Pastor Koh and his wife Susanna received death threats. He was sent two bullets and she white powder, which she was later told was anthrax.

World Watch Monitor, September 10, 2020

The Eritrean government has released on bail more than 20 prisoners who’d been in detention for years because of their faith, possibly because of the Covid 19 pandemic, the BBC reports.  The prisoners are from Christian evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, some held in a prison outside the capital Asmara.

In 2002 Eritrea introduced a new law that forbids all Churches except for the Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran ones. Sunni Islam is also officially recognised.  The Eritrean government has not responded to BBC requests for confirmation or denial. Previously, it’s dismissed accusations of intolerance to religious freedom.

In June 2019, the government seized all Catholic-run health clinics in the country and arrested five Orthodox priests.

In August 2019, Eritrea’s Orthodox patriarch, Abune Antonios, was expelled by pro-government bishops of his Church, accused of heresy; he had been under house arrest since 2007, when he refused to comply with the regime’s attempts to interfere with church affairs.

The US says “In 2019, religious freedom conditions in Eritrea worsened, with increasing interference in and restrictions on religious groups. Eritrea continues to have one of the worst religious freedom records in the world”.  Some prisoners, such as the leader of the Full Gospel Church, have been in prison for more than 15 years.

International Christian Concern, September 14, 2020

A new report produced by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education studied 238 Qatari textbooks over the last four academic years. The report looks at two separate parts of the curriculum as it relates to Christians. The overall conclusion was that the curriculum does not promote religious tolerance.

It noted some improvements with the Qatari curriculum in that it gives much information about Christian-Muslim interactions during the Middle Ages. There are more exercises related to cultural sharing. However, it does speak suspiciously of missionary activities, generally defined within the spheres of education, deceptive charities, and medical treatments. It warns that such activities are meant to “destroy Islam.”

The report noted almost no improvement with the curriculum of Islamic religious studies. The curriculum heavily emphasizes that Christians want to destroy Islam and blames local non-Muslim minorities with collaborating with the enemy. The report calls this an “indoctrination toward resentment.” The report also notes that the curriculum does not include material relating to the persecution of Christians. Instead, Christians are viewed as infidels.

What does exist relating to references of tolerance does not meet international standards. It warns that pan-Islamic, pan-Arab nationalism, Salafism, and the Muslim Brotherhood “dominate the religious tenor of the curriculum.”