text:
Tag Archives: Dr
Hindu Extremists in India Beat Pastor Unconscious
Evangelist was traveling with sons from one village to another.
NEW DELHI, April 22 (CDN) — Hindu extremists beat a pastor and evangelist unconscious in front of his sons earlier this month in Madhya Pradesh state.
Ramesh Devda, 30, from Dhadhniya, Meghnagar district, said he was attacked on April 4 at about 11 a.m. after leading a prayer meeting in Chikklia village. He said he was on his way to Bhajidongra, at the border of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat states, by motorcycle with his two sons, 10-year-old Elias, and 8-year-old Shimon, to lead another prayer meeting.
When he reached Raseda village, he said, suddenly three people on two motorcycles blocked his way and forced him to stop.
"Suddenly out of nowhere these three men appeared in two motorcycles – they blocked me and tilted my motorcycle," Pastor Devda told Compass. "We fell down. They were carrying big bamboo sticks and clubs. They started beating me, and then they called and three more men came and started to attack me."
He said he was thankful that his sons were spared from beating, though his older son sustained a leg injury in the course of the attack.
"They were angry at me and were threatening to kill me and were warning me not to come to their area again," he said. "My sons were screaming at the top of their voices, and they were afraid. One of the men hit me on my forehead with a big bamboo stick, cracking my skull. The others were also beating me on my body, especially my back with bamboo sticks."
A blow to the forehead temporarily blinded him, he said.
"My eyes were darkened, and I fell down, and they proceeded to beat me even more," he said. "The men were also abusive in the foulest language that I had heard, and they were drunk."
People passing by heard the two boys crying out and came to help, and the attackers fled, he said, leaving the unconscious pastor and his sons.
"I do not know who helped me, as I was unconscious," Pastor Devda said. "But I came to know later that local Christians also came in and called the emergency helpline. As a result, an ambulance came, which then took me to the hospital."
He was taken to Anita Surgical Hospital on Station Road in Dahod, Gujarat. There a physician identified only as Dr. Bharpoda told him that he had fractured his skull.
"I am being treated for my wounds now, but there is still a lot of pain," Pastor Devda said.
A Christian for 15 years, Pastor Devda has been in Christian leadership for 11 years and now serves with the Christian Reformed Fellowship of India. He has two other children, Ashish and 4-year-old Sakina, and his wife Lalita, 28, is active with him in Christian service.
Pastor Devda leads congregations in Chikklia, Bhajidongra and Dhadhniya villages.
"I have heard that I was attacked because the people of Chikklia did not like me conducting the Sunday service there," he said. "The people who beat me up do belong to a Hindu fundamentalist outfit, and some believers in Chikklia know them. I can recognize them if I see them again."
He said, however, that he does not want to file a First Information Report (FIR) with police.
"There is no one supporting me or standing with me in my village or my mission, and I am myself fearful, as I have to continue to minister to these very people," Pastor Devda said. "I know my attack was pre-planned, but I do not want to report it to the police."
A Christian co-worker from Rajasthan was also attacked about a month ago in equally brutal fashion, he said, but also refrained from filing an FIR because of fear of repercussions.
Vijayesh Lal, secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India's Religious Liberty Commission, said the tribal belt that extends to the border areas of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, has been a hot spot for anti-Christian activity since the late 1990s.
"Only recently a 65-year-old evangelist was beaten and stripped by Hindu extremists," he said. "It is a worrisome trend, and one that should be dealt with not only by the government but by the secular media and civil society in general."
http://www.compassdirect.org
Posted in Christianity, Hinduism, India, Reformed	| Tagged abusive, active, activity, afraid, ambulance, angry, Anita Surgical Hospital, anti-Christian, appeared, Ashish Devda, attack, attacked, attackers, back, bamboo, beat, beaten, believers, belong, belt, Bhajidongra, Bharpoda, big, blinded, blocked, blow, body, border, boys, brutal, called, carrying, Chikklia, Christian, Christian Reformed Fellowship of India, Christianity, Christians, civil, clubs, co-worker, conducting, congregations, continue, course, cracking, crying, Dahod, darkened, dealt, Dhadhniya, district, down, Dr, drunk, Elias Devda, emergency, equally, Evangelical Fellowship of India, evangelist, extends, extremists, eyes, fashion, fearful, fell, file, FIR, First Information Report, fled, forced, forehead, foulest, fractured, front, fundamentalist, general, government, Gujarat, heard, help, helped, helpline, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, hit, hospital, hot, identified, India, injury, kill, Lalita Devda, language, lead, leadership, leading, leads, leaving, leg, lot, Madhya Pradesh, media, meeting, Meghnagar, men, minister, mission, motorcycle, motorcycles, New Delhi, older, out, outfit, pain, passing, Pastor, people, Persecution, physician, police, prayer, pre-planned, proceeded, Rajasthan, Ramesh Devda, Raseda, reached, recognize, refrained, Religious Liberty Commission, repercussians, report, Sakina Devda, screaming, secretary, secular, serves, service, Shimon Devda, skull, Society, sons, spared, spot, standing, started, state, states, Station Road, sticks, stop, stripped, Sunday, supporting, sustained, temporaily, thankful, threatening, tilted, top, travelling, treated, trend, tribal, unconscious, Vijayesh Lal, village, voices, warning, way, worrisome, wounds | 1 Comment
Nepal Christians Begin Legal Battle for Burial Ground
Hindu group declares country a Hindu state; upper castes seek halt to conversions.
KATHMANDU, Nepal, April 19 (CDN) — With the government refusing to listen to their three-year plea for an official cemetery and ignoring a protracted hunger strike, Nepal's Christians are now seeking redress from the Supreme Court.
"Every day there are two to three deaths in the community, and with each death we face a hard time with the burial," said Chari Bahadur Gahatraj, a pastor who filed a petition in the high court on March 13 asking it to intervene as authorities of Nepal's oldest Hindu temple had begun demolishing the graves of Christians there.
Gahatraj and Man Bahadur Khatri are both members of the newly formed Christian Burial Ground Prayer and National Struggle Committee that since last month began leading a relay hunger strike in a public area of the capital, asking for a graveyard. They said they were forced to go to court after the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), which runs Nepal's oldest Hindu shrine, the Pashupatinath temple, said it would no longer allow non-Hindus to use the temple's forested land.
"We don't want to hurt the sentiments of any community," Gahatraj told Compass. "Nor are we trying to grab the land owned by a temple. We are ready to accept any plot given to us. All we are asking for is that the burials be allowed till we get an alternate site."
Judge Awadhesh Kumar Yadav has since ordered the government and PADT not to prevent Christians from using the forest for burials until the dispute is resolved. The legal battle, however, now involves a counter-suit. Hindu activist Bharat Jangam filed a second writ on March 20, saying that since the forest was the property of a Hindu temple, non-Hindus should not be allowed to bury their dead there just as churches do not allow Hindu burials.
Subsequently, the court decided to hear the two petitions together, and yesterday (April 18), the hearings began. While two lawyers argued on behalf of Gahatraj and Khatri, a cohort of 15 lawyers spoke against their petition. The next hearing is scheduled for May 3.
Along with the legal battle, Christians have kept up their relay hunger strike. To step up pressure on the government, the protestors also announced they would lead a funeral march to the offices of the prime minister and the culture minister and hand over coffins to them as a symbolic protest. If that too failed, they warned they would have no option but to go on hunger strike in front of the prime minister's office and parliament, this time carrying dead bodies with them.
Alarmed at the rate the issue was snowballing, the government finally responded. Yesterday Culture Minister Gangalal Tuladhar opened talks with the protestors, agreeing to continue the negotiations after three days. The government also formed a four-member committee to look into the demand. Currently, Christians are asking for cemetery land in all 75 districts of Nepal.
Protestors were wary of the government's intent in the overture.
"This could be a ploy to buy time and bury the issue," said a member of the Christian committee formed to advise parliament on drafting the new constitution, who requested anonymity.
Though the committee formed to look into the Christians' demand for burial land has been asked to present a report within two weeks, Christians suspect the panel is dragging its feet.
"The new constitution has to be promulgated by May 28, but it does not seem likely that the main political parties will be able to accomplish the task," the Christian committee member said. "And if the constitution doesn't materialize in time, there will be a crisis and our problem will be shelved."
Hindu Nation
Adding to their unease, Christians are now facing a redoubled campaign by Hindu groups for the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion, five years after parliament declared Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, secular.
If the new constitution had been promulgated last year, it would have consolidated secularism in Nepal. But with the country missing the deadline due to protracted power-sharing rows among the major political parties, Christians still feel under threat.
On Thursday (April 14), when the country celebrated the start of the indigenous new year 2068 with a public holiday, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, which seeks the reinstatement of Hinduism as the state religion, kicked off a campaign at the Bhadrakali temple in Kathmandu. As curious onlookers and soldiers patrolling the nearby army headquarters looked on, party members fervently blew into conch shells and rang bells to draw people's attention to their demand.
The party, which is also seeking the restoration of monarchy, took some oblique shots at the Christian community as well.
"There is a deliberate and systematic attempt by organizations to convert Hindus," said Kamal Thapa, party chief and a former minister. "These organizations are guided by foreign powers and foreign funds. If the widespread conversion of Hindus is not stopped immediately, we will have to take stern measures."
Three days later, an umbrella of Hindu groups – the Rastriya Dharma Jagaran Mahasabha (the National Religion Resurrection Conference) held a massive gathering in the capital, declaring Nepal a "Hindu state" and meeting with no official objection. The proclamation came as the climax to a three-day public program calling for the restoration of "the traditional Hindu state." Several Hindu preachers and scholars from neighboring India attended the program, held on the grounds of the Pashupatinath temple, which is also a UNESCO-declared World Heritage Site.
The "Hindu state" proclamation was the brainchild of Shankar Prasad Pandey, a former member of parliament from Nepali Congress, the second largest party in Nepal, now in opposition. Though Pandey was a sitting Member of Parliament in 2006, when the body unanimously declared Nepal secular, he began opposing the move soon afterwards, leading four campaigns against it nationwide.
"I consider the nation and the Hindu religion to be more important than the party," said Pandey, known as the MP who began to go barefoot 32 years ago to show solidarity with Nepalese, who are among the poorest in the world. "Over 90 percent of the Nepalese want Nepal to be a Hindu state. However, the government is led by people whose only concern is power and money."
Pandey's campaign is supported by Hindu groups from India and the West: Narendranath Saraswati, who is the Shankaracharya or religious head of a prominent Hindu shrine in India's Varanasi city; Dr. Tilak Chaitanya, chief of a group in the United Kingdom that propagates the Gita, the holy book of the Hindus; and Tahal Kishore, head of a Hindu organization, Radha Krishna Sevashram, in the United States.
Two weeks before the May 28 deadline for the new constitution, Pandey and his followers plan to step up the campaign for a "Hindu state" in the capital. Though Pandey denies it could stir up animosity between the majority-Hindus and Christians – whose minority population is said to have crossed 2 million but is actually only 850,801, according to Operation World – there are fears of religious tension if not outright violence.
The Hindu rallies continue to grow as a pressure tactic. Yesterday (April 18), members of Nepal Brahman Samaj, an organization of "upper castes" from whose echelons temple priests are appointed, fought with security forces in front of parliament house, demanding their rights be respected and an end to conversions.
More Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) campaigning is scheduled on April 29, when the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal's Thapa has called for a mass gathering in the capital.
Posted in Christianity, Hinduism, India, Nepal, United Kingdom, USA	| Tagged 2006, 2068, accept, activist, allow, alternate, appointed, area, army, attended, Awadhesh Kumar Yadav, barefoot, battle, begin, begun, bells, Bhadrakali, Bharat Jangam, book, brainchild, burial, burials, bury, campaign, campaigning, capital, castes, celebrated, cemetery, Chari Bahadur Gahatraj, chief, Christian, Christian Burial Ground Prayer and National Struggle Committee, Christianity, Christians, churches, city, community, conch, consolidated, constitution, conversions, convert, counter-suit, country, court, crisis, culture minister, dead, deadline, death, deaths, declared, declares, demanding, demolishing, Dr, drafting, echelons, end, face, filed, forces, foreign, forest, forested, formed, former, fought, front, funds, Gangalal Tuladhar, gathering, Gita, given, government, grab, graves, graveyard, ground, grounds, group, guided, halt, hard, head, headquarters, high court, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, Hindutva, holiday, Holy, hunger, hurt, ignoring, important, India, indigenous, intervene, issue, judge, Kamal Thapa, Kathmandu, Kingdom, land, leading, legal, listen, major, Man Bahadur Khatri, mass, members, minister, missing, monarchy, move, MP, Narendranath Saraswati, nation, National Religion Resurrection Conference, nationalist, nearby, negotiations, neighboring, Nepal, Nepal Brahman Samaj, Nepalese, Nepali Congress, new, newly, non-Hindus, official, oldest, onlookers, opened, opposing, organizations, owned, PADT, Parliament, parliament house, parties, party, Pashupati Area Development Trust, Pashupatinath, Pastor, patrolling, Persecution, petition, petitions, plea, plot, political, poorest, power-sharing, powers, preachers, priests, Prime Minister, problem, program, prominent, promulgated, propagates, property, protracted, public, Radha Krishna Sevashram, rang, Rashtriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, Rastriya Dharma Jagaran Mahasabha, redress, refusing, reinstatement, relay, religion, religious, resolved, respected, restoration, rights, rows, scheduled, scholars, secular, secularism, security, seek, seeking, sentiments, Shankar Prasad Pandey, Shankaracharya, shells, shelved, shrine, site, snowballing, soldiers, solidarity, start, state, strike, supreme court, Tahal Kishore, talks, temple, Tilak Chaitanya, time, together, traditional, UNESCO, United Kingdom, upper, USA, use, Varanasi, West, world, World Heritage Site, writ, year | Leave a comment
Unprecedented Appearance of Foreign Evangelist in Vietnam
Luis Palau preaches at Protestant centennial in spite of government putting up obstacles to event.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, April 11 (CDN) — The first appearance by a U.S.-based evangelist preaching at a major event since the 1975 communist victory in Vietnam helped the country's Protestants to celebrate their centennial last weekend after government officials gave last-minute approval.
In what seems to have become standard government procedure in Vietnam, permission requested months in advance was granted – at a venue several kilometers from the one organizers sought – just three hours before the first major celebration of the Centennial of Protestantism in Vietnam (1911-2011) at Thanh Long Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City on Saturday (April 9) was scheduled to begin. Argentine-born Luis Palau, who has preached in person to 28 million people in 72 countries, delivered the gospel
A second night of celebration began at 7 p.m. on Sunday.
The venue change meant equipment staged in one part of the city had to be moved to the new location before it could be assembled, church leaders said. It also meant notifying many thousands of people invited to one venue about the change to the other, they said.
Given the lack of government cooperation, the leader of Vietnam's Evangelical Fellowship (of house churches) said the fact that the event went ahead at all was "an absolute miracle."
By word-of-mouth, Internet, Twitter, Facebook, and especially phone texting, thousands of people got word of the change as technicians and hundreds of volunteers made heroic efforts to ready the stadium. Vietnamese police proved surprisingly helpful in redirecting people from the original site to the new location.
At 9 p.m. – two hours after the schedule start – huge banners reading "PRAY FOR VIETNAM" and "GOD LOVES VIETNAM" were unfurled to welcome the Luis Palau Team and thousands of people to the festival, which joyfully combined the centennial celebration with Easter.
After opening prayers and welcome by Vietnamese leaders, Palau's son Andrew Palau gave testimony to how God delivered him from alcoholism and drug addiction and called him to Christian service. An Intel Corp. vice-president also gave testimony to how God blessed his life and his business. Pastor-musician Don Moen, known for songs such as "Give Thanks," "God is so Good," and "God will Make a Way," provided inspirational music followed by exuberant congregational singing.
Palau began his message at 11 p.m., delivering a concise and clear evangelistic sermon, and about 800 came forward as he invited people to receive Christ. It was after midnight before people began to depart for their homes.
The second celebration proceeded Sunday evening (April 10) in a more orderly and timely fashion. More than 12,000 people filled the seats and most of the chairs set up on the stadium field. In response to Palau's second message, more than 1,000 people, according to one organizer, came forward in response to the call to follow Christ.
Photos and Vietnamese text on the events are readily available at http://www.hoithanh.com, and clips of the arrival of Palau and Moen in Vietnam may be found on YouTube. They were welcomed at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhut airport by hundreds of enthusiastic young people carrying banners and flowers.
Dr. Nguyen Xuan Duc, president of the Vietnam World Christian Fellowship, said he was very encouraged about the future of the church in Vietnam.
"These are watershed days for Protestantism in Vietnam," he said. "There is no fear, but rather wonderful spontaneity and irrepressible joy. Events like this happen in spite of the government and without the blessing of some overly conservative church leaders. What we see is young, vibrant, lay-led, internationally connected and very media-savvy."
While Moen, Palau and others spoke on Sunday night, also appearing in Ho Chi Minh City was iconic singer/songwriter Bob Dylan – whose performance sold only about half of the 8,000 seats at RMIT university.
A week before in Beijing, censors who reviewed Dylan's song list allowed an unabashedly Christian song beginning, "Jesus said be ready for you know not the hour in which I come," but did not allow "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'," according to The Associated Press. Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch complained that, in an earlier day, Dylan – whose music contributed to opposition to the Vietnam War – would never have let a government tell him what to sing, according to the AP.
Vietnamese organizers and the Palau team now travel north to Hanoi for similar events on Friday and Saturday (April 15-16). As yet there is no indication whether authorities there will be more accommodating than they were in Ho Chi Minh City.
Posted in Argentina, Christianity, Communism, USA, Vietnam	| Tagged 1911, 1975, 2011, absolute, accommodating, addiction, advance, airport, alcoholism, allowed, Andrew Palau, appearance, appearing, approval, Argentina, Argentine-born, arrival, assembled, authorities, banners, based, before, began, begin, beginning, Beijing, blessed, Blowin, Blowin' in the Wind, bob Dylan, business, call, called, carrying, celebrate, celebration, censors, centennial, chairs, change, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, city, clear, clips, combined, come, Communism, communist, communists, complained, concise, congregational, connected, conservative, contributed, cooperation, countries, country, delivered, depart, Don Moen, Dr, drug, earlier, Easter, efforts, encouraged, enthusiastic, equipment, evangelist, evangelistic, event, events, exuberant, Facebook, fashion, fear, festival, field, filled, first, flowers, follow, foreign, forward, future, gave, give, God, good, gospel, government, Hanoi, happen, helped, helpful, heroic, Ho Chi Minh City, homes, hour, house churches, huge, Human Rights Watch, iconic, indication, inspirational, Intel Corp., internationally, Internet, invited, irrepressible, Jesus, joy, joyfully, know, known, lack, last-minute, lay-led, leaders, life, list, loves, Luis Palau, Luis Palau Team, major, make, media-savvy, message, miracle, music, musician, new, Nguyen Xuan Duc, north, not, notifying, obstacles, officials, opening, opposition, orderly, organizer, organizers, original, overly, part, Pastor, people, performance, permission, Persecution, person, phone, photos, police, pray, prayers, preaches, preaching, President, procedure, Protestant, Protestantism, proved, provided, ready, receive, redirecting, requested, response, reviewed, RMIT, scheduled, seats, sermon, similar, singer, singing, site, sold, son, song, songs, songwriter, sought, spite, spontaneity, stadium, staged, standard, surprisingly, Tan Son Nhut, technicians, testimony, text, texting, Thanh Long Stadium, thanks, The Times They Are A-Changin', timely, travel, Twitter, unabashedly, unfurled, University, unprecedented, USA, vibrant, Vice President, victory, Vietnam, Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, Vietnam War, Vietnam World Christian Fellowship, Vietnamese, volunteers, watershed, way, welcome, wind, without, wonderful, word-of-mouth, young, youtube | Leave a comment
Malaysian Christians Seek to End Restrictions on Malay Bibles
Posted on April 9, 2011 by particularkev
Federation calls for removal of 'every impediment' to importing and printing Scripture.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 6 (CDN) — Christian importers of Bibles that Malaysian officials detained are balking at conditions the government has imposed for their release, such as defacement of the sacred books with official stamps.
The Home Ministry stamped the words, "This Good News [Malay] Bible is for use by Christians only" on 5,100 Bibles without consulting the importer, the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), which initially refused to collect them as it had neither accepted nor agreed to the conditions. The Home Ministry applied the stamp a day after the government on March 15 issued a release order for the Bibles, which had been detained in Port Klang, 38 kilometers (24 miles) southwest of Kuala Lumpur, since March 20, 2009.
Another 30,000 Bibles detained since Jan. 12 on the island of Borneo remain in port after the Sarawak state Home Ministry told the local chapter of Gideons International that it could collect them if the organization would put the stamp on them. Gideons has thus far declined to do so, and a spokesman said yesterday (April 5) that officials had already defaced the books with the stamp.
The government issued letters of release to both organizations on March 15 under the condition that the books bear the stamp, "Reminder: This Good News [Malay] Bible is for use by Christians only. By order of the Home Minister," and that the covers must carry a serial number, the official seal of the department and a date.
The Home Ministry's stamping of the BSM Bibles without the organization's permission came under fire from the Christian community. In a statement issued on March 17, Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), described the Home Ministry's action as desecration.
"[The] new conditions imposed on the release of the impounded Bibles … is wholly unacceptable to us," he added.
Ng described the conditions imposed by the Home Ministry as tantamount to treating the Malay Bible as a "restricted item" and subjecting the word of God to the control of man. In response, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has said the act of stamping and serialization was standard protocol.
Government Overtures
In the weeks following the March 15 release order, the government made several attempts to try to appease the Christian community through Idris Jala, a Christian from Sarawak state and a minister in the Prime Minister's Department.
Idris issued the government's first statement on March 22, explaining that officials had reduced earlier conditions imposed by the Home Ministry to require only the words, "For Christianity" to be stamped on the covers of the Bible in font type Arial, size 16, in bold.
Idris informed BSM that the Bibles could be collected in their present state or arrangements could be made to have stickers with the words "For Christianity" pasted over the imprint of the stamps made by the Home Ministry officials. In the event that this was not acceptable, the minister pointed out that BSM had the option of having the whole consignment replaced, since the government had received an offer from Christian donors who were prepared to bear the full cost of purchasing new Bibles.
In response, the CFM issued a statement on March 30 saying, "The offer made does address the substantive issues," and called on the government "to remove every impediment, whether legal or administrative, to the importation, publication, distribution and use of the [Malay Bible] and indeed to protect and defend our right to use the [Malay Bible]."
Bishop Ng, however, left it to the two importers to decide whether to collect the Bibles based on their specific circumstances.
On March 31, BSM collected the mishandled Bibles "to prevent the possibility of further acts of desecration or disrespect." In a press statement, BSM officials explained that the copies cannot be sold but "will be respectfully preserved as museum pieces and as a heritage for the Christian Church in Malaysia." The organization also made it clear that it will only accept compensation from the Home Ministry and not from "Christian donors," a term it viewed suspiciously.
On Saturday (April 2), Idris issued a 10-point statement to try to resolve the impasse. Significantly, this latest overture by the government included the lifting of present restrictions to allow for the local printing and importation of Malay and other indigenous-language Bibles into the country.
In Sarawak and Sabah, there would be no conditions attached to Bibles printed locally or imported. There also would be no prohibitions and restrictions on residents of these two states carrying such Bibles to other states. A significant 64 percent of Malaysian Christians are indigenous people from Sabah and Sarawak states who use the Malay language in their daily life, and having the Bible in the Malay language is considered critical to the practice of their Christian faith.
In the case of West Malaysia, however, in view of its larger Muslim population, the government imposed the condition that the Bibles must have the words "Christian publication" and the sign of the cross printed on the front covers.
Christian Response
Most Christians responded to this latest overture with caution. Many remained skeptical, seeing it as a politically motivated move in view of Sarawak state elections on April 16. Nearly half of Sarawak's population is Christian.
Bolly Lapok, an Anglican priest, told the online news agency Malaysian Insider, "It's an assurance, but we have been given such assurances before." BSM General-Secretary the Rev. Simon Wong reportedly expressed the same sentiments, saying the Home Ministry already has a record of breaking its word.
The Rev. Thomas Phillips of the Mar Thoma Church, who is also president of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, questioned the timing of the proposal: "Why, after all these years?"
The youth wing of the Council of Churches rejected the proposal outright, expressing fears that the government was trying to "buy them over" for the Sarawak election, and that it would go back on its word after that.
Bishop Paul Tan, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Malaysia, called the proposal an "insidious tactic of 'divide and rule,'" referring to its different requirements imposed on Malaysians separated by the South China Sea. Dr. Ng Kam Weng, research director at Kairos Research Centre, stressed that the proposal "does not address the root problem of the present crisis, i.e. the Allah issue."
Muslim Reactions
The 10-point proposal has also drawn the ire of Muslim groups, who view it as the government caving in to Christian pressure.
Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria expressed his disappointment, reportedly saying, "If the government does this, just cancel the law," in reference to various state Islamic enactments that prohibit the use of the word "Allah" and other so-called Islamic terms that led to the banning of the Malay Bible. Malay Bibles have not been allowed to be printed locally for fear that they will utilize "prohibited" words.
The Muslim Organizations in Defense of Islam (Pembela) threatened to challenge the 10-point proposal in court if it was not reviewed in consultation with Muslim representatives.
On the same day Pembela issued its statement, the government seemed to have retracted its earlier commitment. The Home Minister reportedly said talks on the Malay Bibles were still ongoing despite Idris' 10-point proposal, which purportedly represents the Cabinet's decision.
As a result, James Redas Noel of the Gideons said yesterday (April 5) that he was confused by the mixed messages coming from the government and will not make a decision on whether to collect the Bibles until he had consulted church leaders on the matter, according to the Malaysian Insider.
The issue with the Malay Bibles is closely tied to the dispute over use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims.
In a controversial court ruling on Dec. 31, 2009, judge Lau Bee Lan had allowed The Herald, a Catholic newspaper, to use "Allah" for God in the Malay section of its multilingual newspaper.
The Home Ministry filed an appeal against this decision on Jan. 4, 2010. To date, there is no indication as to when the case will be heard.
Christians make up more than 9 percent of Malaysia's nearly 28 million people, according to Operation World.
Posted in Anglicans, Buddhism, Christianity, Church of England, Hinduism, Islam, Malaysia, Roman Catholicism, Sikh, Taoism	| Tagged 10-point, 2009, accept, accepted, action, administrative, agreed, Allah, allowed, Anglican, appeal, appease, assurance, balking, banning, bear, Bible Society of Malaysia, Bibles, bishop, Bolly Lapok, Books, Borneo, BSM, Buddhism, buy, cabinet, cancel, Catholic Bishops Conference, caving, CFM, chairman, challenge, chapter, Christian, Christian Federation of Malaysia, Christianity, Christians, church, collect, committment, community, compensation, conditions, confused, consignment, consultation, consulted, consulting, control, controversial, copied, cost, country, court, critical, date, decide, decision, declined, defacement, defend, department, described, desecration, detained, different, director, disappointment, dispute, disrespect, distribution, divide, donors, Dr, earlier, elections, enactments, end, expressed, expressing, faith, fears, federation, filed, fire, full, General Secretary, Gideons, Gideons International, God, Good News Bible, government, groups, heritage, Hinduism, Hishammuddin Hussein, Home Minister, Home Ministry, Idris Jala, impediment, importation, importers, importing, imposed, impounded, indigenous, initially, insidious, ire, Islam, Islamic, island, issue, issued, item, James Redas Noal, judge, Kairos Research Centre, Kuala Lumper, language, Lau Bee Lan, law, leaders, legal, letters, local, Malay, Malaysia, Malaysian, Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism Christianity Sikhism Taoism, man, Mar Thoma Church, messages, minister, mishandled, mixed, multilingual, museum, Muslim, Muslim Organizations in Defense of Islam, muslims, new, newspaper, Ng Kam Weng, Ng Moon Hing, non-Muslims, number, offer, official, officials, only, organization, outright, overtures, Paul Tan, Pembela, Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria, permission, Persecution, pieces, port, Port Klang, possibility, practice, prepared, preserved, President, pressure, prevent, priest, Prime Minister's Department, printing, problem, prohibit, prohibitions, proposal, protect, protocol, publication, purchasing, reactions, received, refused, rejected, release, remain, removal, replaced, representatives, requirements, reserach, residents, restricted, restrictions, retracted, Rev, reviewed, right, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, root, rule, ruling, Sabah, sacred, Sarawak, scetion, Scripture, seal, seek, separated, serial, serialization, Sikhism, Simon Wong, sold, South China Sea, southwest, spokesman, stamp, stamped, stamps, standard, state, statement, subjecting, tactic, tantamount, Taoism, terms, The Herald, Thomas Phillips, threatened, treating, unacceptable, use, utilize, West Malaysia, wholly, wing, Word, words, youth | 1 Comment
Prospects Dim for Religious Freedom in Nepal
Right to share faith could harm Nepal's Hindu identity, lawmakers believe.
KATHMANDU, Nepal, March 29 (CDN) — A new constitution that Nepal's parliament is scheduled to put into effect before May 28 may not include the right to propagate one's faith.
The draft constitution, aimed at completing the country's transition from a Hindu monarchy to a secular democracy, contains provisions in its "religious freedom" section that prohibit anyone from converting others from one religion to another.
Most political leaders in the Himalayan country seemed unaware of how this prohibition would curb religious freedom.
"Nepal will be a secular state – there is no other way," said Sushil Koirala, president of the Nepali Congress, Nepal's "Grand Old Party," but he added that he was not aware of the proposal to restrict the right to evangelism.
"Forcible conversions cannot be allowed, but the members of the Constituent Assembly [acting parliament] should be made aware of [the evangelism ban's] implications," Koirala, a veteran and one of the most influential politicians of the country, told Compass.
Gagan Thapa, another leader of the Nepali Congress, admitted that banning all evangelistic activities could lead to undue restrictions.
"Perhaps, the words, 'force, inducement and coercion' should be inserted to prevent only unlawful conversions," he told Compass.
Man Bahadur Bishwakarma, also from the Nepali Congress, said that of all the faith communities in Nepal, Christians were most active in converting others, sometimes unethically.
"There are problems in Hinduism, such as the caste hierarchy, but that doesn't mean you should convert out of it," he said. "I believe in reforming one's religion."
Asked if the restriction on converting others violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Akal Bahadur of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) said, "It may, but there was a general consensus on it [the prohibition]. Besides, it is still a draft, not the final constitution."
Nepal signed the ICCPR on May 14, 1991. Article 18 of the ICCPR includes the right to manifest one's religion, which U.N. officials have interpreted as the right to evangelistic and missionary activities.
Akal Bahadur and Thapa are members of the Committee on Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles, which was tasked to propose the scope of religious freedom and other rights in the draft constitution. This committee, one of 11 thematic panels, last year submitted a preliminary draft to the Assembly suggesting that a person should be allowed to decide whether to convert from one religion to another, but that no one should convert anyone else.
Binda Pandey, chairperson of the fundamental rights committee and member of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), told Compass that it was now up to the Assembly to decide whether this provision violates religious freedom.
The Constitution Committee is condensing the preliminary drafts by all the committees as one draft constitution. At least 288 contentious issues arose out of the 11 committees, and the Constitution Committee has resolved 175 of them, Raju Shakya of the Kathmandu-based Centre for Constitutional Dialogue (CCD) told Compass.
The "religious freedom" provision with its ban on evangelism did not raise an eyebrow, however, as it is among the issues listed under the "Area of Agreement" on the CCD Web site.
Once compiled, the draft constitution will be subject to a public consultation, after which another draft will be prepared for discussion of clauses in the Constitutional Assembly; provisions will be implemented on a two-thirds majority, Shakya said.
Hindu Identity
Thapa of the fundamental rights committee indicated that religious conversion could become a contentious issue if the proposed restriction is removed. Even the notion of a secular state is not wholly accepted in the country.
"If you hold a referendum on whether Nepal should become a secular state, the majority will vote against it," Thapa said.
Most Hindus see their religion as an essential part of the country's identity that they want to preserve, he added.
Dr. K.B. Rokaya, the only Christian member of Nepal's National Commission for Human Rights, said Nepal's former kings created and imposed a Hindu identity for around 240 years because it suited them; under the Hindu ethos, a king should be revered as a god. Most of the numerous Hindu temples of Nepal were built under the patronage of the kings.
Rokaya added that Christians needed to be more politically active. The Assembly does not have even one Christian member.
According to the 2001 census, over 80 percent of Nepal's 30 million people are Hindu. Christians are officially .5 percent, but their actual number is believed to be much higher.
Nepal was the world's only Hindu kingdom until 2006, when a people's movement led by former Maoist guerrillas and supported by political parties, including the Nepali Congress and the Unified Marxist Leninist, ousted King Gyanendra.
An interim constitution was enacted in 2007, and the Constituent Assembly was elected through Nepal's first fully democratic election a year later. The Assembly was supposed to promulgate a new constitution by May 28, 2010, but its term was extended by one year.
It is still uncertain, however, whether the approaching deadline will be met due to persistent disagreements among parties. The Maoist party has 220 members, the Nepali Congress 110, and the Unified Marxist Leninist 103 in the 575-member Assembly.
Rokaya, a member of the newly formed United Christians Alliance of Nepal, comprising a majority of Christian denominations, said Christians would continue to ask for full religious freedom. The use of inducement or force for conversions is deplorable, but the right to preach the tenets of one's religion is a fundamental freedom, he added.
Posted in Christianity, Communism, Hinduism, Nepal	| Tagged 1991, 2006, active, activities, Akal Bahadur, Area of Agreement, banning, believe, Binda Pandey, built, caste, CCD, Centre for Constitutional Dialogue, Chairperson, Christian, Christianity, Christians, committee, Committee on Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles, Communism, communist, Communist Party of Nepal, communists, consensus, Constituent Assembly, constitution, Constitution Committee, Constitutional Assembly, consultation, conversions, converting, country, created, curb, decide, democracy, Democratic, denominations, deplorable, dim, Dr, draft, effect, elected, election, enacted, ethos, evangelistic, faith, Final, force, formed, former, fundamental, Gagan Thapa, general, God, guerrillas, Gyanendra, harm, hierarchy, Himalayan, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, ICCPR, identity, imposed, inducement, interim, International Covenant on Civil and political Rights, K B Rokaya, Kathmandu, king, Kingdom, kings, lawmakers, leaders, led, Man Bahadur Bishwakarma, manifest, Maoist, member, missionary, monarchy, movement, Nepal, Nepal's National Commission for Human Rights, Nepali Congress, Nepali Congress 110, new, newly, panels, Parliament, parties, patronage, people, Persecution, political, politically, preach, preliminary, President, prohibit, prohibition, promulgate, propagate, propose, prospects, provision, provisions, public, Raju Shakya, referendum, reforming, religion, religious freedom, restrictions, revered, right, rights, scheduled, scope, secular, share, signed, supported, Sushil Koirala, temples, tenets, thematic, transition, unaware, Unified Marxist Leninist, Unified Marxist Leninist 103, United Christians Alliance of Nepal, United Communist Party of Nepal, violated | Leave a comment
Christians Decry Malaysia's Detention of Bible Books
After stopping 5,100 Bibles in 2009, authorities withhold 30,000 Malay-language copies.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, March 14 (CDN) — The detaining of 30,000 copies of the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs in the Malay language at Malaysia's Kuching Port has "greatly disillusioned" the nation's Christian community.
The books, imported from Indonesia by the local branch of Gideons International for distribution in schools, churches and longhouses in Betong, Saratok and other Christian areas in Sarawak state, have been detained at the Kuching Port since January.
Authorities told an unnamed officer of the importer on Jan. 12 that he could not distribute the books in Sarawak state, on the island of Borneo, since they "contained words which are also found in the Quran," according to online news agency Malaysiakini. The officer was ordered to transport the books to the Home Ministry's office for storage.
Last week, when the same officer enquired of the Home Ministry officials on the status of the Malay Bibles, authorities said they had yet to receive instructions on the matter.
This is not the first time government authorities have detained Malay-language Bibles, and Bishop Ng Moon Hing, chairman of Christian Federation of Malaysia, decried the action.
"The CFM is greatly disillusioned, fed-up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles written in our national language," Ng said. "It would appear as if the authorities are waging a continuous, surreptitious and systematic program against Christians in Malaysia to deny them access to the Bible in [Malay]."
An earlier consignment of 5,100 copies of the Good News Bible in Malay, imported by the Bible Society of Malaysia, was detained in Port Klang in March 2009. Together with this latest seizure, the total number of Bibles seized and remaining in possession of the Home Ministry amounts to 35,100 copies.
The CFM, representing a majority of Christians in Malaysia, released a statement on March 10 asserting, "All attempts to import the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia [Malay], i.e. the Alkitab, whether through Port Klang or the Port of Kuching, have been thwarted" since March 2009.
Prior to March 2009, there had been several such incidents, and "each time, tedious steps had to be taken to secure their release," according to the CFM.
A significant 64 percent of Malaysian Christians are indigenous people from Sabah and Sarawak states who use the Malay language in their daily life. Christian leaders say having Bibles in the Malay language is crucial to the practice of their Christian faith.
This latest Bible book seizure has irked Christians and drawn criticisms from politicians spanning both sides of the political divide.
The Sarawak Ministers Fellowship issued a statement registering its "strong protest," describing the detention of the books as "unconstitutional" and in violation of the 18-point agreement for Sarawak in the formation of Malaysia.
Representing the opposition political party, People's Justice Party (Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat) Chief Baru Bian described the withholding as "religious harassment" and "a blatant disregard of our constitutional right as Christians in Malaysia."
Chua Soi Lek, president of the Malaysian Chinese Association, a political party within the ruling coalition National Front, proposed that Malay Bibles be allowed to be printed locally. The deputy chief minister of Sarawak, Dr. George Chan, expressed the state government's willingness to publish the Malay Bible locally.
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was quoted in The Star newspaper today as saying, "The issue … is being resolved amicably with the parties concerned," though how this was taking place was not apparent. The home minister has reportedly said the books had been withheld pending an appeal over the use of the word "Allah" in The Herald catholic newspaper.
Secretary-General of Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement Mohamad Raimi Abdul Rahim has called for the government to enforce the ban on use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims nationwide, including in Sabah and Sarawak.
In a controversial court ruling on Dec. 31, 2009, Judge Lau Bee Lan had allowed The Herald to use the word "Allah" for God in the Malay section of its multilingual newspaper. The Home Ministry filed an appeal against the decision on Jan. 4, 2010, but to date there is no indication as to when the case will be heard.
Posted in Christianity, Indonesia, Islam, Malaysia, Roman Catholicism	| Tagged 2009, access, agreement, Alkitab, Allah, allowed, amicably, appeal, areas, authorities, Bahasa Malay, ban, Baru Bian, Betong, Bible, Bible Society of Malaysia, Bibles, bishop, blatant, Books, Borneo, branch, called, chairman, chief, Christian, Christianity, Christians, Chua Soi Lek, churches, Coalition, community, consignment, constitutional, contained, continuous, controversial, copies, court, criticisms, crucial, daily, decision, deny, deputy chief minister, describing, detaining, detention, disillusioned, disregard, distribute, distribution, divide, Dr, drawn, earlier, enforce, expressed, faith, Federation of Malaysia, filed, formation, found, George Chan, Gideons International, God, Good News Bible, government, greatly, harassment, Hishammuddin Hussein, Home Minister, Home Ministry, imported, importer, including, indigenous, Indonesia, instructions, Islam, island, issue, judge, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching Port, language, latest, Lau Bee Lan, leaders, life, local, locally, longhouses, Malay, Malay-language, Malaysia, Malaysian, Malaysian Chinese Association, Mohamad Raimi Abdul Rahim, multilingual, Muslim, Muslim Youth Movement, muslims, nation, national, National Front, nationwide, New Testament, newspaper, Ng Moon Hing, non-Muslims, office, officer, opposition, party, pending, people, People's Justice Party, Persecution, political, politicians, Port Klang, possession, practice, President, printed, program, protest, Proverbs, Psalms, publish, quoted, Quran, receive, registering, religious, representing, resolved, right, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, ruling, Sabah, saratok, Sarawak, Sarawak Ministers Fellowship, Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat, schools, Secretary General, section, seizure, state, status, stopping, storage, strong, surreptitious, systematic, The Herald, The Stae, thwarted, transport, unconstitutional, unnamed, use, violation, waging, willingness, withhold, Word, words | Leave a comment
Supreme Court in India Rejects Bail of Orissa Legislator
BJP assemblyman convicted in two murders in 2008 violence says he's innocent.
NEW DELHI, January 28 (CDN) — India's Supreme Court on Tuesday (Jan. 25) rejected the bail granted to Hindu nationalist Orissa state legislator Manoj Pradhan following his conviction in the murder of a Christian, Parikhita Nayak.
Pradhan, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was convicted on June 29, 2010 of "causing grievous hurt" and "rioting" and sentenced to seven years of prison in the murder of Nayak, of Budedi village, who died on Aug. 27, 2008. In its decision, the Supreme Court ordered the High Court to reconsider its decision to grant him bail.
Pradhan had been granted bail by the High Court on July 6 on grounds having won the April 2009 state assembly election. Contesting the election from jail, he had become a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) representing Kandhamal's G. Udayagiri constituency. On Sept. 9, 2010 he was convicted in the murder of Bikram Nayak of Budedipada, for which he was sentenced to six years of rigorous imprisonment (see http://www.compassdirect.org, "Court in India Convicts Legislator in Second Murder Case,"
Sept. 10, 2010). He received bail within 40 days of that conviction.
Parikhita Nayak's widow, Kanaka Rekha Nayak, had challenged the granting of bail before the Supreme Court. She pointed out in her petition that there were seven other murder cases against Pradhan, including the second conviction.
"Being an MLA was not grounds for granting of bail," she told Compass.
Nayak's petition also argued that, because of his position, Pradhan intimidated witnesses outside of jail. She told Compass that, after receiving bail in spite of their convictions, Pradhan and an accomplice continued to roam the area, often intimidating her.
In the Supreme Court decision, Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjaron wrote that the High Court should have taken into consideration the findings of the trial court and the alleged involvement of the respondent in more than one case.
"The [bail] order clearly reflects that the High Court was mainly impressed by the fact that the respondent is a sitting MLA," they wrote. "In the circumstances, we find it difficult to sustain the order."
Pradhan was accused of stopping Parikhita Nayak and then calling together a large group of persons armed with axes and other weapons, who then hacked Nayak to death; afterward they sought to dispose of the body by burning it.
Pradhan denied all charges against him, telling Compass by telephone that they were "baseless."
"I have full faith in the judiciary system, and justice will be done," Pradhan said, adding that he and other "innocent people" have been arrested due to political pressure and that the real culprits are at large.
On his next move, he said he would surrender himself to police custody if necessary and then file another application for bail.
Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council, told Compass that he was pleased.
"Pradhan deserves to be behind bars in more than one case, and it was a travesty of justice that he was roaming around terrorizing people," Dayal said. "He was not involved in every single act of violence, but he was the ring leader. He planned the violence; he led some of the gangs."
Dibakar Parichha of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Catholic Archdiocese told Compass that police records showed that Pradhan was a "field commander of Hindu extremists sent to kill Christians."
The state government's standing counsel, Suresh Tripathy, supported this week's cancellation of bail.
Cases against Legislator
Pradhan told Compass that a total of 289 complaints were registered against him in various police stations during the August-September 2008 attacks on Christians in Kandhamal district, Orissa, out of which charge sheets were filed in only 13 cases.
Of the 13, he has been acquitted in seven and convicted in two murder cases, with six more cases pending against him – "Three in Lower Court, two in the High Court and One in the Supreme Court," Pradhan told Compass.
Of the 13 cases, seven involved murder; of those murder cases, he has been acquitted in three.
Cases have been filed against Pradhan for rioting, rioting with deadly weapons, unlawful assembly, causing disappearance of evidence of offense, murder, wrongfully restraining someone, wrongful confinement, mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy houses, voluntarily causing grievous hurt and voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means.
Pradhan was also accused of setting fire to houses of people belonging to the minority Christian community.
The Times of India reported Pradhan as "one of the close disciples" of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati, whose assassination on Aug. 23, 2008, touched off the anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal and other parts of Orissa.
Status of Trials
Expressing complete dissatisfaction in the trial system, Dayal told Compass that the two Fast Track courts are "meting out injustice at speed."
"One of the main reasons," he said, "is lack of police investigation, the inadequacy of the department of projections to find competent public prosecutors, and the inadequacy of the victim community to find a place in the justice process."
As a result, he said, victims are not appropriately represented and killers are not appropriately prosecuted.
"Therefore, the two courts find enough reason to let people off," Dayal said.
Complaints filed at a police station in Kandhamal after the violence of 2008 totaled 3,232, and the number of cases registered was 831.
The government of Orissa set up two Fast Track courts to try cases related to the violence that spread to more than a dozen districts of Orissa. The attacks killed more than 100 people and burned 4,640 houses, 252 churches and 13 educational institutions.
The number of violent cases in the Fast Track courts is 231 (non-violent cases numbered 46, with total cases thus reaching 277). Of the violent cases, 128 have resulted in acquittals and 59 in convictions; 44 are pending.
Of the 722 people facing trial, 183 have been convicted, while 639 have been acquitted.
Posted in Christianity, Hinduism, India, Roman Catholicism	| Tagged 2008, 2009, acquittals, acquitted, All India Christian Council, alleged, anti-Christian, assassination, assemblyman, attacks, axes, B. Sudarshan Reddy, bail, baseless, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, body, Budedi, Budedipada, burned, burning, causing, challenged, Christian, Christianity, Christians, churches, close, commander, confinement, convicted, conviction, court, Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Catholic Archdiocese, dangerous, deadly, destroy, Dibakar Parichha, died, disappearance, disciple, Dr, educational, election, evidence, explosive, extremists, Fast Track Courts, field, fire, G. Udayagiri, grievous, hacked, high court, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, houses, hurt, imprisonment, India, injustice, innocent, institutions, intent, involvement, jail, John Dayal, justice, Kanaka Rekha Nayak, Kandhamal, killed, leader, legislator, lower court, Manoj Pradhan, means, Member of the Legislative Assembly, meting, mischief, MLA, murder, murders, nationalist, New Delhi, offense, Orissa, Parikhita Nayak, pending, people, Persecution, prison, rejects, representing, restraining, rigorous, rioting, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, S.S. Nijjaron, Secretary General, someone, speed, state, substance, supreme court, Suresh Tripathy, swami Laxamananda Saraswati, touched, trial, unlawful assembly, VHP, village, violence, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, voluntarily, weapons, widow, World Hindu Council, wrongfully, wrote | Leave a comment
Christians Suspect Cover-Up in Pastor's Death in Orissa, India
Police refuse to follow leads pointing to murder.
NEW DELHI, January 21 (CDN) — Relatives of a pastor who was found dead in a secluded area in eastern Orissa state's Kandhamal district last week have accused local police of a cover-up.
The body of Saul Pradhan, a 45-year-old independent pastor whose house was burned by Hindu extremists two years ago, was found near a pond in Pakala village in Kandhamal's Raikia Block on Jan. 11 and bore marks of assault, Catholic activist Ajay Singh told Compass.
"I spoke to the widow of the pastor, and she told me that the hands and legs of the deceased looked twisted, and there was blood in his mouth. His pants were also torn," Singh said by phone from Orissa's capital, Bhubaneswar. "Why should it not arouse suspicion when Pastor Pradhan was last seen with two Hindu men, Marda Pradhan and Baiju Mallick, who were among the rioters who burned houses of Christians in 2008?"
A local activist with the Evangelical Fellowship of India said he visited the site after the body had been removed and saw blood stains on a stone.
Kandhamal witnessed two of India's deadliest waves of anti-Christian violence in December 2007 and August-September 2008; the latter killed over 100 people, destroyed thousands of homes and displaced more than 60,000 others after a Hindu nationalist leader was killed by Maoists; Hindu nationalist groups blamed it on local Christians.
Christian residents of Kandhamal say the antagonism toward them by those who engaged in the attacks under the influence of extremist Hindu nationalists remains strong.
Singh said that the two Hindu men who burned houses of Christians in 2008, Marda Pradhan and Mallick, came to Pastor Pradhan's house the evening of Jan. 10 and asked him to come out.
"The pastor's wife was about to serve dinner and so asked him to wait," he said. "But he said he wouldn't take long."
When the pastor did not return the next day, his wife went to the house of Marda Pradhan with a few villagers. Marda Pradhan's wife told them her husband had been in the jungle for three days because of a leg injury, Singh said.
That afternoon, the pastor's wife and the villagers again went to the house of Marda Pradhan, whose wife claimed he was not there. They could see him inside the house, however, and asked him to take them to the spot in the jungle where he had taken Pastor Pradhan the previous night. After walking for around half an hour, Marda Pradhan ran away, Singh said.
"The villagers got suspicious and began to look around," he said. "That's when they found the body lying near a pond."
Some area residents told the villagers that they had heard loud quarreling the previous night.
Police, however, say they have found little reason to suspect foul play.
"There were no injury marks on the body of the man," Inspector Ravi Narayan Barik told Compass, refuting the claims of the dead man's family. "The doctor who performed the autopsy said it was just an unnatural death."
According to police, Pastor Pradhan and two other men got drunk on the night of Jan. 10. The two others were able to return to their homes, Barik said, while the pastor could not and died in the cold.
"Drinking country-made liquor is normal behavior here," said Barik, of the Raikia police station. "We called one of the two men who was with the deceased for interrogation but did not find anything suspicious."
An official autopsy report was still awaited at press time.
Asked what sections of the Indian Penal Code or the Criminal Procedure Code were mentioned in the First Information Report or the formal police complaint, the official said, "None."
"The family is spreading rumors about murder in hope of receiving compensation from the government, as many victims of the 2008 violence got compensated," the inspector said.
Activist Singh said when the family went to police to report the suspected murder, officers were unwilling to listen.
"The police scolded them," Singh said. "They said he must have died from the cold. When the family asked for an autopsy, the police asked them to collect the body, take it to the village and bring it to the police station the following day."
But after the family insisted, the police asked them to bring the body the same day, he said.
"So the family and friends carried the body on a bicycle and brought it to the police station," Singh said. Asked why police did not go to collect the body, Singh said, "This is how it happens here."
Singh also said he heard that some local politicians from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) visited the Raikia police station after the death was reported, though he added that he "could not confirm if that actually happened."
Until March 2009, the BJP was a ruling party in Orissa in coalition with a regional party, the Biju Janata Dal, for 11 years.
Dr. Sajan George of the Global Council of Indian Christians called for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported on Monday (Jan. 17).
"The killing of Saul [Pradhan] seemed to be an organized crime by a section of people who had threatened him a few months ago, his family members alleged, adding that his house was also torched during the Kandhamal riots in 2008," George told PTI.
Posted in Christianity, Hinduism, India, Roman Catholicism	| Tagged 2008, accused, activist, Ajay Singh, area, assault, autopsy, Baiju Mallick, Bharatiya Janata Party, Bhubaneswar, Biju Janata Dal, BJP, blood, body, bore, burned, capital, Central Bureau of Investigation, Christian, Christianity, Christians, claims, cold, country-made, cover-up, Criminal Procedure Code, dead, death, died, district, doctor, Dr, drunk, eastern, Evangelical Fellowship of India, extremists, FIR, First Information Report, follow, found, Global Council of Indian Christians, hands, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, house, independent, Indian Penal Code, injury, inspector, Kandhamal, leads, legs, liquor, local, Maoists, Marda Pradhan, marks, mouth, murder, nationalist, New Delhi, Orissa, Pakala, pants, Pastor, performed, Persecution, pointing, police, police station, politicians, pond, Raikia, Rakia Block, Ravi Narayan Barik, refuse, refuting, relatives, rioters, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, Sajan George, Saul Pradhan, secluded, state, suspect, suspicion, torn, twisted, unnatural, village | Leave a comment
Anti-Christian Sentiment Heats Up
Posted on December 8, 2010 by particularkev
Terrorist threat in Iraq emerges at importune moment for Copts.
CAIRO, Egypt, November 22 (CDN) — As bombings and other attacks continue against Christians in Iraq, Christians in Egypt have gathered to pray and plan for their own safety.
When a group of Islamic extremists on Oct. 31 burst into Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad during evening mass and began spraying the sanctuary with gunfire, the militant organization that took responsibility said Christians in Egypt also would be targeted if its demands were not met. Taking more than 100 congregants hostage, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) called a television station and stated that the assault came in response to the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt allegedly holding two Coptic women against their will who, the ISI and some others believe, converted to Islam.
The group issued a 48-hour deadline for the release of the women, and when the deadline passed it issued a statement that, "All Christian centers, organizations and institutions, leaders and followers are legitimate targets for the muhajedeen [Muslim fighters] wherever they can reach them." The statement later added ominously, "We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood."
In the attack and rescue attempt that followed, 58 people were reportedly killed. A week and a half later, Islamic extremists killed four people in a series of coordinated attacks against Christians in Baghdad and its surrounding suburbs. The attackers launched mortar rounds and planted makeshift bombs outside Christian homes and one church. At least one attack was made against the family members of one of the victims of the original attack.
On Nov. 15, gunmen entered two Christian homes in Mosul and killed two men in the house. The next day, a Christian and his 6-year-old daughter were killed in a car bombing. At the same time, another bomb exploded outside the home of a Christian, damaging the house but leaving the residents uninjured, according to CNN.
The threats against Christians caused a flurry of activity at churches in Egypt. A 35-year-old Protestant who declined to give her name said Christians in Cairo have unified in prayer meetings about the threats. An SMS text message was sent out through prayer networks asking people to meet, she said.
"I know people are praying now," she said. "We have times for our people to pray, so all of us are praying."
Security has increased at churches throughout Egypt. In Cairo, where the presence of white-uniformed security police is ubiquitous, the number of uniformed and plain-clothes officers has doubled at churches. High-ranking police officers shuffle from one house of worship to another monitoring subordinates and enforcing new security rules. At times, parking on the same side of the street as a church building, or even driving by one, has been forbidden.
On Nov. 8, leaders from the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox churches gathered to discuss how to improve security at churches. According to the leaders of several churches, the government asked pastors to cancel unessential large-scale public meetings. Pope Shenouda III canceled a celebration to commemorate the 39th anniversary of his installment as the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Guests at a recent outdoor Christmas bazaar and a subsequent festival at the All-Saints Cathedral in Zamalek
were greeted with pat-downs, metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Some church leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the security improvements are haphazard, while others say they are genuine efforts to ensure the safety of Christians.
Most Christians in Cairo avoided answering any questions about the attacks in Iraq or the threats made against Christians in Egypt. But Deliah el-Sowkary, a Coptic Orthodox woman in her 20s, said she hoped no attacks would happen in her country. Noting the security present at all churches, still she said she is not that worried.
"I think it's different in Egypt than in Baghdad, it's more safe here," El-Sowkary said.
Almost a week after the bombings, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak issued a statement through the state-run MENA news agency that the Copts would be protected from attacks.
"The president affirmed his extensive solicitude for the protection of the nation's sons, Muslims and Copts, from the forces of terrorism and extremism," the agency stated.
The security concerns came against a backdrop of heightened tensions between the Muslim majority and the Coptic Christian minority over the past few months, with weeks of protests against Christians in general and against Shenouda specifically. The protests, held mostly in Alexandria, ended two weeks ago.
The tension started after the wife of a Coptic priest, Camilia Zakher, disappeared in July. According to government sources and published media reports, Zakher left her home after a heated argument with her husband. But Coptic protestors, who started gathering to protest at churches after Zakher disappeared, claimed she had been kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam.
Soon after, Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI) officers found her at the home of a friend. Despite stating she had left of her own free will, authorities brought Zakher back to her husband. Since then, Zakher has been in seclusion. It is unclear where she is or if she remains there of her own free will.
Unconfirmed rumors began spreading that Zakher had converted to Islam and was being held against her will to force her to return to Christianity. Protests outside mosques after Friday prayers became weekly events. Protestors produced a photo of unknown origin of a woman in Islamic covering whom they claimed was Zakher. In response, Coptic authorities released a video in which the priest's wife stated that she wasn't a Muslim nor ever had been.
Another rumor began circulating that Zakher went to Al-Azhar University, one of the primary centers of Islamic learning in the world, to convert to Islam. But Al-Azhar, located in Cairo, released a statement that no such thing ever happened.
No independent media interviews of Zakher have taken place because, according to the Coptic Church, the SSI has ordered church officials not to allow public access to her. Along with their accusations about Zakher, protestors also claimed, without evidence, that a similar thing happened in 2004 to Wafa Constantine, also the wife of a Coptic Orthodox priest. Constantine was the second woman the ISI demanded the Copts "release." Like Zakher, her location is not public knowledge.
The month after the Zakher incident, Egyptian media reported in error that the SSI had seized a ship from Israel laden with explosives headed for the son of an official of the Coptic Orthodox church. The ship was later found to be carrying fireworks, but another set of Islamic leaders, led in part by Nabih Al-Wahsh, an attorney famous for filing lawsuits designed to damage the church, declared without any evidence that Copts were allied with the Israelis and stockpiling weapons in the basements
of their churches with plans to overthrow the Muslim majority.
The claims were echoed on Al-Jazeera by Dr. Muhammad Salim Al-'Awa, the former secretary-general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, and in a statement issued by the Front of Religious Scholars, a group of academics affiliated with Al-Azhar University.
There was no time for tensions to cool after Al-'Awa and the others leveled their allegations. The next month, Bishop Anba Bishoy, the secretary of the Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church, told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masri Al-Yawm that Muslims were "guests" in Egypt, inflaming a Muslim population already up in arms.
"The Copts are the root of the land," the bishop said. "We love the guests who came and settled in our land, and regard them as brothers, but they want to control even our churches? I reject anything that harms the Muslims, but as Christians we will do everything, even die as martyrs, if someone tries to harm our Christian mission."
Around the same time, the Front of Religious Scholars called for a complete boycott of Christians in Egypt. The group called Christians "immoral," labeled them "terrorists" and said Muslims should not patronize their businesses or even say "hello" to them.
The statement by the scholars was followed by a media leak about a lecture Bishoy was scheduled to give at a conference for Orthodox clergy. In his presentation, Bishoy planned on questioning the authorship of a verse in the Quran that calls Christians "blasphemers." Muslims believe that an angel revealed the Quran to Muhammad, Islam's prophet, who transmitted it word-by-word to his followers. Bishoy contended there was a possibility the verse in question was added later.
The mosque protests became even more virulent, and the conference was abruptly cancelled. Bishoy was forced to issue an apology, saying he never meant to cast doubt on Islam and called Muslims "partners" with the Copts in Egypt. Shenouda also issued an apology on national television. By comparison, an Islamic publishing house that rewrote and then issued what it termed the "true Bible" caused barely a stir.
Al-'Awa then blamed the deteriorating state of Muslim-Christian relations on Shenouda and Bishoy. He accused the Coptic Orthodox Church of exploiting the government's "weak stance" toward it and "incarcerating anyone [who] is not to its liking."
The Al-Azhar Academy of Islamic Research issued a statement that declared, "Egypt is a Muslim state." The statement further went on to read that the Christians' rights were contingent on their acceptance of the "Islamic identity" of Egypt. The statement was endorsed by Ali Gum'a, the mufti of Egypt.
The statement also referenced an agreement made between Muhammad and a community of Egyptian Christians in the seventh century as the guiding document on how Christians should be governed in a Muslim-dominated state. If ever codified into Egyptian law as many Muslims in Egypt desire, it would legally cement the status of Christians in the country as second-class citizens.
In 639, seven years after Muhammad died, Muslim armies rode across from Syria and Palestine and invaded Egypt, then controlled by the Byzantines. At first the Muslims, then a new but well-armed minority within Egypt, treated the conquered Christians relatively well by seventh century standards. But within a generation, they began the Islamization of the country, demanding all official business be conducted in Arabic, the language of the Quran, and Coptic and Jewish residents were forced to pay special taxes and obey rules designed to reaffirm their second-class status.
In the centuries since then, the treatment of Christians in Egypt has ebbed and flowed depending on the whim of those in power. After the coup of 1952, in which a group of men known as the Free Officers' Movement took power from a European-backed monarch, Copts have seen their treatment decline.
In 1971, then-President Anwar Sadat introduced a new constitution designating Islamic law as "a principle source of legislation" in Egypt. In 1980, the National Assembly made Islam the official religion of the state.
Estimates of the Coptic population range from 7 to 12 percent of Egypt's 84 million people. They are accepted by some in Egypt and openly discriminated against by others. Violent attacks against Christians – which the government does little to prevent – accentuate tensions.
The state also routinely harasses converts to Christianity from Islam. Many have to live in some sort of hiding.
The Protestant woman said she was not sure whether attacks would happen in response to the threats, but whatever happens, she said she expects that Christians in Egypt will continue to endure persecution.
"According to the Bible, we know this is going to happen," she said. "This is not new or novel for us. The Bible said that we will be persecuted. It is expected."
Posted in Anglicans, Christianity, Church of England, Egypt, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Orthodox, Palestine, Roman Catholicism, Syria	| Tagged 1952, 1971, 1980, 2004, 39th, 639, academics, Al Azhar University, Al Jazeera, Al-Azhar Academy of Islamic Research, Alexandria, Ali Gum'a, All Saint's Cathedral, allegedly, Anba Bishoy, angel, Anglican, anniversary, anti-Christian, Anwar Sadat, Arabic, armies, arms, assault, attacksm gathered, attorney, Baghdad, basements, believe, Bible, bishop, blasphemers, bomb, bombing, bombings, Byzantines, Cairo, called, Camilia Zakher, cancelled, car, celebration, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, Church of England, churches, commemorate, congregants, constitution, controlled, converted, Coptic, Coptic Orthodox Church, Copts, country, coup, covering, daughter, Deliah el-Sowkary, demands, die, died, disappeared, Dr, Egypt, Egyptian, emerges, European-backed, evening, exploded, explosives, extremists, famous, fighters, fireworks, former, Free Officers' Movement, Front of Religious Scholars, guests, gunfire, heats, holding, Hosni Mubarak, hostage, importune, inflaming, installment, International Union of Muslim Scholars, invaded, Iraq, ISI, Islam, Islamic, Islamic State of Iraq, Islamization, Israel, Israelis, Jewish, killed, laden, land, language, law, leaders, legislation, Martyrs, Masri Al-Yawm, mass, men, militant, mission, moment, monarch, mosques, Mosul, Mufti, muhajedeen, Muhammad, Muhammad Salim Al-'Awa, Muslim, muslims, Nabih Al-Wahsh, national assembly, new, newspaper, official, organization, origin, Our Lady of Salvation, overthrow, Palestine, partners, pay, Persecution, photo, plan, Pope, power, pray, prayer meetings, President, priest, principle, prophet, Protestant, Quran, religion, response, responsibility, revealed, Roman Catholic, root, safety, sanctuary, secretary, Secretary General, sentiment, Shenouda III, ship, son, source, special, spraying, SSI, state, State Security Intelligence, station, stockpiling, synod, Syria, targeted, taxes, television, terrorist, threat, unknown, Wafa Constantine, weapons, wife, will, woman, women, Zamalek | Leave a comment
After Fatwa, Pastor in Pakistan Beaten with Bricks
Posted on November 6, 2010 by particularkev
Convert, a former fighter in Afghanistan, had protested Islamic attack.
SARGODHA, Pakistan, November 5 (CDN) — Muslim extremists in Islamabad on Monday (Nov. 1) beat with bricks and hockey sticks a Christian clergyman who is the subject of a fatwa demanding his death.
The Rev. Dr. Suleman Nasri Khan, a former fighter in Afghanistan before his conversion to Christianity in 2000, suffered a serious head injury, a hairline fracture in his arm and a broken bone in his left ankle in the assault by 10 Muslim extremists; he was able to identify two of them as Allama Atta-Ullah Attari and Allama Masaud Hussain.
The attack in Chashma, near Iqbal Town in Islamabad, followed Islamic scholar Allama Nawazish Ali's Oct. 25th fatwa (religious ruling) to kill Khan, pastor of Power of the Healing God's Church in the Kalupura area of Gujrat city. A mufti (Islamic scholar) and member of Dawat-e-Islami, which organizes studies of the Quran and Sunnah (sayings and deeds of Muhammad), Ali is authorized to issue fatwas.
Khan, 34, had relocated to a rented apartment in Islamabad after fleeing his home in Gujrat because of death threats against him and his family, he said. The fatwa, a religious order to be obeyed by all Muslims, was issued after Khan protested anti-Christian violence in Kalupura last month.
Muslim extremists who learned of his conversion had first attacked Khan in 2008 – killing his first child, 3-month old Sana Nasri Khan. He and wife Aster Nasri Khan escaped.
"During the Kalupura Christian colony attacks, once again it came into the attention of Muslim men that I was a converted Christian who had recanted Islam, deemed as humiliation of Islam by them," Khan said.
In this week's attack, Khan also sustained minor rib injuries and several minor cuts and bruises. He said the Muslim radicals pelted him with stones and bricks while others kicked him in the chest and stomach. They also tried to force him to recite Islam's creed for conversion; he refused.
On Monday night (Nov. 1) Khan had gone out to buy milk for a daughter born on July 19 – named after the daughter who was killed in 2008, Sana Nasri Khan – when during the wee hours of the night five unidentified Muslim extremists began kicking and pounding on the door.
"When my wife asked who they were, they replied, 'We have learned that you have disgraced Islam by recanting, therefore we will set your house on fire," Khan told Compass. "When my wife told them that I was not at home, they left a letter threatening to torch the house and kill my whole family and ordered me to recant Christianity and embrace Islam."
Khan had sold some of his clothes at a pawnshop in order to buy milk for the baby, as he has been financially supporting six Christian families from his congregation who are on a Muslim extremist hit list. Islamic militants have cordoned off parts of Kalupura, patrolling the area to find and kill the families of Allah Rakha Masih, Boota Masih, Khalid Rehmat, Murad Masih Gill, Tariq Murad Gill and Rashid Masih.
Often feeding her 5-month-old daughter water mixed with salt and sugar instead of milk or other supplements, Aster Nasri Khan said she was ready to die of starvation for the sake of Jesus and His church. Before her beaten husband was found, she said she had heard from neighbors that some Muslim men had left him unconscious on a roadside, thinking he was dead.
The Rev. Arif Masih of Power of the Healing God's Church in Islamabad told Compass that he was stunned to find Khan unconscious in a pool of blood on the roadside. Saying he couldn't go to police or a hospital out of fear that Muslims would level apostasy charges against Khan, Masih said he took him to the nearby private clinic of Dr. Naeem Iqbal Masih. Khan received medical treatment there while remaining unconscious for almost four hours, Masih said.
Born into a Muslim family, Khan had joined the now-defunct Islamic militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which later emerged as Jaish-e-Muhammad, fighting with them for eight and half years in Kashmir and Afghanistan.
While fighting in Afghanistan's civil war in 2000, he said, he found a New Testament lying on the battlefield. He immediately threw it away, but a divine voice seemed to be extending an invitation to him, he said. When he later embraced Christ, he began preaching and studying – ending up with a doctorate in biblical theology from Punjab Theological Seminary in Kasur in 2005.
Upon learning of the Oct. 25 fatwa against him, Khan immediately left Gujrat for Islamabad, he said. He was living in hiding in Chashma near Iqbal Town when Muslims paid his landlord, Munir Masih, to reveal to them that Khan was living at his house as a tenant, he said. A young Christian whose name is withheld for security reasons informed Khan of the danger on Oct. 29, he said.
The young Christian told him that Munir Masih revealed his whereabouts to Allama Atta-Ullah Attari, a member of Dawat-e-Islami.
Khan said he confided to Christian friends about the dangers before him, and they devised a plan to hide his family in Bara Koh, a small town near Islamabad.
"But as I had sold and spent everything to help out Kalupura Christians," he said, "I was penniless and therefore failed to move on and rent a house there."
Posted in Afghanistan, Christianity, Islam, Pakistan	| Tagged 2000, 2005, 2008, able, Afghanistan, Allah Rakha Masih, Allama Atta-Ullah Attari, Allama Masaud Hussain, Allama Nawazish Ali, ankle, anti-Christian, apartment, apostasy, area, Arif Masih, arm, assault, Aster Nasri Khan, attack, attacks, attention, authorized, away, baby, Bara Koh, battlefield, beat, beaten, before, began, biblical theology, blood, bone, Boota Masih, born, bricks, broken, bruises, buy, charges, Chashma, chest, child, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, city, Civil War, clergyman, clinic, clothes, confided, congregation, conversion, convert, converted, cordoned, creed, cuts, danger, daughter, Dawat-e-Islami, dead, death, deeds, deemed, defunct, demanding, devised, die, disgraced, divine, doctorate, door, Dr, embrace, embraced, emerged, ending, escaped, extending, extremists, failed, families, family, fatwa, fear, feeding, fighter, financially, find, fire, first, fleeing, followed, force, former, found, fracture, friends, group, Gujrat, hairline, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, head, heard, help, hide, hiding, hit list, hockey, home, hospital, house, humiliation, husband, identify, informed, injuries, injury, instead, invitation, Iqbal Town, Islam, Islamabad, Islamic, issue, issued, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Jesus, joined, Kalupura, Kalupura Christian Colony, Kashmir, Kasur, Khalid Rehmat, kicked, kill, killed, killing, landlord, later, learned, left, letter, level, living, lying, medical, member, men, militants, milk, minor, mixed, move, Mufti, Muhammad, Munir Masih, Murad Masih Gill, Muslim, muslims, Naeem Iqbal Masih, name, nearby, neighbors, New Testament, obeyed, ordered, organizes, paid, Pakistan, parts, Pastor, patrolling, pawnshop, pelted, penniless, Persecution, plan, police, pool, pounding, Power of Healing God's Church, preaching, private, protested, Punjab Theological Seminary, Quran, radicals, Rashid Masih, ready, reasons, recanted, received, recite, refused, religious, relocated, remaining, rent, rented, Rev, reveal, rib, roadside, ruling, sake, salt, Sana Nasri Khan, Sargodha, sayings, scholar, security, seemed, serious, set, small, sold, spent, starvation, sticks, stomack, stones, studies, studying, stunned, subject, suffered, sugar, Suleman Nasri Khan, Sunnah, supplements, supporting, sustained, Tariq Murad Gill, tenant, thinking, threatening, threats, threw, torch, town, treatment, tried, unconscious, unidentified, violence, voice, water, whereabouts, whole, wife, withheld, young | Leave a comment
The latest Kwitter! paper.li/particularkev?… Thanks to @gospelebooks @windiescricket @BushHeritageAus #opinion #christianfiction 1 day ago


text:
The High Costs of the Proposed Flores Regulation
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Maltreatment, Child Well-Being, Detention, Highlighted Resources, Immigrant Families Research, Research, Research Highlight, Topics
Philip E. Wolgin, Center for American Progress (October 19, 2018)
The Center for American Progress estimates that, over a decade, the proposed rule to dissolve the Flores Settlement, which would allow the Trump administration to indefinitely incarcerate children, would cost DHS slightly more than $2 billion at the low end, and as much as $12.9 billion at the high end.
Language competence in forensic interviews for suspected child sexual abuse.
By Sophia Sepp | Child Abuse/Neglect Prevention, Child Maltreatment, Child Welfare System Research, Child Well-Being, Culture: Issues and Competencies, Language Issues, Research, Research Highlight, Trauma
Lisa A. Fontes and Amy C. Tishelman, Child Abuse and Neglect (June 2016)
Forensic interviews with children for suspected child sexual abuse require meeting children "where they are" in terms of their developmental level, readiness to disclose, culture, and language. In this qualitative study, 39 U.S. child forensic interviewers and child advocacy center directors discussed their experiences, practices, and opinions regarding interviews with children and families who are not native speakers of English. Recommendations for practice and further research are included.
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Abuse/Neglect Prevention, Child Maltreatment, Child Welfare System Research, Child Well-Being, Family Violence, Foster Care, Research, Social Work, State Policies
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Children's Bureau (Feb 1, 2018)
A Birth Cohort Study of Asian and Pacific Islander Children Reported for Abuse and Neglect
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Maltreatment, Child Welfare System Research, Child Well-Being, Culture: Issues and Competencies, Research Highlight
A Birth Cohort Study of Asian and Pacific Islander Children Reported for Abuse and Neglect by Maternal Nativity and Ethnic origin
Megan Finno-Velasquez, Lindsey Palmer, John Prindle, Christina Tam, Emily Putnam-Hornstein; Child Abuse and Neglect (Oct 2017)
This study's findings show disparities in CPS involvement for children of Asian origin that have implications for health and well-being across the life course. (Link provides abstract only without institutional or paid access.)
Read Abstract
Why Immigration Policy Should Matter to Youth-Serving Systems
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Abuse/Neglect Prevention, Child Maltreatment, Immigrant Youth, Legal/Law, Practice Highlight, Social Workers, Unaccompanied Minors
Marie Williams, Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (Aug 9, 2017)
In the current climate of immigration enforcement, youth-serving systems now have a duty to investigate whether they are adequately serving the vulnerable population of immigrant children.
Childhood Cut Short: Sexual and Gender-based Violence against Central American Migrant and Refugee Children
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Maltreatment, Immigrant Youth, Research Highlight, Safety, Spanish Resources, Unaccompanied Minors, Unaccompanied Minors Research
KIND (June 7, 2017)
Before and during migration, many unaccompanied children who come to the U.S. have endured violence. This study examines their experiences.
The Healthy Immigrant Paradox and Child Maltreatment: A Systematic Review
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Maltreatment, Child Well-Being, Immigrant Families Research, Research Highlight
Lina S. Millett, Journal of Immigrant Minority Health (Feb 25, 2016)
Systematic review suggests immigrant advantage for emotional and sexual abuse but higher rates of physical neglect and lack of supervision.
Healing the Damage: Trauma and Immigrant Families in the Child Welfare System
By Elizabeth Arnold | Child Abuse/Neglect Prevention, Child Maltreatment, CICW Publications, CICW Toolkits, Handbooks, Guides & Books, Family Violence, Immigrant Youth, Practice, Resources, Social Work, Social Workers, Toolkits, Handbooks, Guides & Books, Trauma
A Social Worker's Toolkit for Working With Immigrant Families
(Updated February 2015)
This toolkit provides public child welfare and community-based agencies working with immigrant families guidelines for integrating child welfare practice – from engagement to case closure – with trauma-informed care and trauma-specific services. In addition, the tool kit describes strategies to build an organization's capacity to better respond to the needs of immigrant families exposed to child maltreatment, domestic and community violence, and other traumatic stresses.
Understanding and Improving the Quality of Service Delivery for Immigrant Families Involved with the Child Welfare System
By Elizabeth Arnold | Child Abuse/Neglect Prevention, Child Maltreatment, CICW Presentations, Culture: Issues and Competencies, Foster Care, Immigrant Youth, Kinship Care, Legal/Law, Social Work, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
2014 ALLIANCE WEBINAR SERIES #3
Presented by Alan Dettlaff, Jane Addams College of Social Work; Wendy Cervantes, First Focus; & Lyn Morland, Senior Consultant, CICW (July 2014)
View the Presentation
Migrant Youth, Transnational Families, and the State Care and Contested Interests
By Center on Immigration & Child Welfare | Child Maltreatment, Child Well-Being, Detention, Immigrant Youth, Legal/Law, Research Highlight, Social Work, Toolkits, Handbooks, Guides & Books, Training & Tools, Unaccompanied Minors
University of Pennsylvania Press (2014)
Through interviews with children and their families, attorneys, social workers, policy-makers, law enforcement, and diplomats, anthropologist Lauren Heidbrink foregrounds the voices of migrant children and youth who must navigate the legal and emotional terrain of U.S. immigration policy.
View Textbook Information

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
(function(module) {
  var repos = {};

  repos.all = [];

  repos.requestRepos = function(callback) {
    $.ajax({
      url: '/github/user/repos',
      method: 'GET',
      success: function(data) {
        repos.all = data;
        repos.all = repos.with('description');
        callback();
      }
    }
  );
  };

  repos.with = function(attr) {
    return repos.all.filter(function(repo) {
      return repo[attr];
    });
  };

  module.repos = repos;
})(window);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Ramesh Datla () is an Indian Industrialist and Chairman of Elico Limited the first Analytical Instruments company in India established in 1960. He is also the Chairman of Elico Healthcare Services Ltd a leading player in the Healthcare IT & ITES Space. He is an active member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and is the Chairman, CII National Committee on IPR, Immediate Past Chairman, CII National Committee on Water and Past Chairman, CII Southern Region and Past Chairperson, CII National Committee on Intellectual Property rights. He was also the past Chairman, CII National MSME Council. He has been actively associated with the industry chamber and held several advisory beneficial roles to the Government of India on behalf of the Industry. He represented India as a speaker in the OECD Conference - Tokyo, GTZ Conference - Berlin, Gulf Cooperation Council Meeting - Muscat, UKIBC Conference - Manchester, USIBC Conference - Washington DC and B20 Working Group for G20 Summit, France. He also led several delegations to United States, Europe, Mexico, Japan, South East Asia, China, Africa & CIS countries.

Early life and education
Born on 25 October 1961. Ramesh Datla holds a Doctorate in Instrumentation from SK University, Graduate in Executive Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, Post Graduate Diploma in Electronics Design Technology from Indian Institute of Science, a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University.

Career
Ramesh started his career at Cirrus Logic Inc, a semiconductor company located in Milpitas, California, USA before moving to India. Later he joined ELICO Limited and held several positions before taking over as Managing Director.

Associations
 Member B20 Working Group as part of G20 Heads of State & Governments Summit 2012, Mexico.
 Member B20 Working Group as part of G20 Heads of State & Governments Summit 2011, France.
 Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – National MSME Council.
 Member, National Board for MSME, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India.
 Member, National Instrumentation Development Board (NIDB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India.
 Board of Director, State Bank of Hyderabad.
 Member, Advisory Board, Electronics & ICT Academy NIT Warangal
 Member, Governing Board, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and Kakinada & Osmania University.

He also actively participated with following associations in past.
 Chairman, Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) - Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.
 Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - Southern Region
 Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – National IPR Committee, New Delhi
 Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – National Membership Committee, New Delhi
 Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – National MSME Council, New Delhi
 Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – Andhra Pradesh State Council.
 Chairman, Employers" Federation of Southern India (EFSI) - AP, Hyderabad
 Chairman, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC-AP).
 President, ISA-The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society, Hyderabad Section
 President, Electronic Industries Association of A.P.

References

External links
 ELICO
 Elico Healthcare Services

Living people
MIT Sloan School of Management alumni
Indian Institute of Science alumni
Wichita State University alumni
1961 births
Telugu people

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Manchester United Set to Splash Over $1,500,000 to Sign Teenage Starlet
by Jose Mourinho Guy September 16, 2015, 5:25 pm
Manchester United are set to make a move for Wolverhampton Wanderers' England teenager Niall Ennis, sources have told ESPN FC. Ennis has grabbed the attention of a number of the Premier League's top sides after impressing for both his club and country in recent months.
Ennis made his debut for Wolves' under-21's last season when he was just 15-year-old and has been training with the first team since then. It is believed that the Red Devils are expected to splash in in excess of $1.5 million to sign the forward. After some top performances, Ennis was rewarded with a National cap last month and went on to score a goal against Portugal Under-17 on his debut.
Apart from United, clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City are also interested in signing the player but United are favourites to sign him after keeping tabs on him for a while. It is very evident that United manager Louis Van Gaal is building a team for the future.
Written by Jose Mourinho Guy
More From: Article
Watford avoiding this injury-prone £4m PL star would be in their best interests
Incredible stat highlights Lionel Messi's consistency regarding assists in La Liga
Twitter explodes as Manchester City face Manchester United in Carabao Cup semi-final
Cristiano Ronaldo basks in glory after incredible header against Sampdoria
(Watch) Merih Demiral produces an exceptional display against Bayer Leverkusen in Champions League
Manchester UnitedNiall EnnisWolverhampton
Jose Mourinho Takes Another Dig At Wenger Before The Arsenal Game! Admits Problem Within Chelsea Camp
Manchester United Injury Update From Eindhoven Hospital