Torture in Egypt

Egyptian police in Alexandria who arrested a Christian convert woman handed her over July 23 to her family – some of whom are known to be fanatical Islamists.  

Eyewitnesses said family members of Shaymaa (Eman) Muhammad al-Sayed, 26, dragged her screaming from the Bab-Sharky police station where she had been closeted.

After severely beating her in the Shatby Cemetery behind the police station, they then forced her into a family microbus and drove her away.

On July 16, these same family members openly threatened to kill Al-Sayed for leaving Islam to become a Christian, after spotting her walking through a fair in Alexandria.

Local police promptly took her into ‘protective custody’; but instead of protection, local police and State Security Investigation (SSI) officials subjected her to days of severe physical and emotional torture.

Her maltreatment included electrical shocks, beatings and being photographed naked. Her repeated requests to press charges against her family for attempting to kidnap and kill her were ignored.

Secret survey

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat state has resumed the secret survey of Christian institutions it began eight years ago.

Extremists have used such surveys to target religious minorities for violence.

“This is the fifth time that the Gujarat government has gathered information about Christian institutions in the state,” petitioner Samson Christian, Gujarat state head and national executive member of the All India Christian Council, told Compass.

“We fear that the data would be handed over to Hindu extremists for launching organized attacks against Christian institutions.”

Christian said police interrogated workers of several Christian institutions in Ahmedabad. Among them, he said, were Operation Mobilisation, the Church of North India and the Salvation Army.

Ahmedabad Police Commissioner J. Mahapatra categorically denied any such survey was underway in any part of the city. But the head of Kagra Peet police station, R.K. Patel, admitted officers visited Christian institutions in the area “a few months ago.”  

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Crackdown in China

Christians throughout China fear tough restrictions on their freedom to worship in the coming year.

The fears were prompted by the launch of a government crackdown ahead of August 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Christians across China are reporting a shortage of Bibles, even in cities where Bibles previously were readily available.

There have been reports of ongoing house church raids and arrests.

Further, an unprecedented number of foreign Christians have been expelled from China in recent months.

In addition, research presented at a government meeting in January revealed that the number of Christians in China may have reached 130 million.

This is much higher than previous government estimates, according to a report from the China Aid Association.

As preparations continue for the Olympics, critics around the world are calling China to account for ongoing human rights violations – including alleged abuses of religious freedom.

Muslims apologize

Muslims have apologized for attacking a church in Pakistan’s Punjab region – but offered no compensation for injuring Christians and damaging the building.

In addition to wounding seven Christians and destroying books at the Salvation Army church in Chak 248, a village 20 miles north of Faisalabad, the perpetrators admitted that a Muslim resident had planned to burn a page of the Qur’an – punishable with life imprisonment under Pakistani law – and blame the Christian community.

“We are sorry and promise that this will not happen in the future,” Faizur Rehman, one of 41 Muslims originally accused of attacking the church on June 17, said in a June 28 notarized affidavit.

“The Christian people have forgiven them,” said lawyer Khalil Tahir Sindhu, legal representative for the Christian community.

He said both parties had dropped court cases in which they accused each other of instigating violence, though he admitted he was not in favour of the out-of-court settlement. “This is called impunity,” the lawyer protested.        – Compass Direct News

August 2007