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Why Onions Make You Cry
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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."
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Pakistani Christian Sentenced for 'Blasphemy' Dies in Prison
Murder suspected in case of Christian imprisoned for life.
LAHORE, Pakistan, March 15 (CDN) — A Christian serving a life sentence in Karachi Central Jail on accusations that he had sent text messages blaspheming the prophet of Islam died today amid suspicions that he was murdered.
Qamar David's life had been threatened since he and a Muslim, Munawar Ahmad, were accused of sending derogatory text messages about Muhammad in June 2006, said David's former lawyer, Pervaiz Chaudhry (See "Pakistan's 'Blasphemy' Laws Claim Three More Christians," March 10, 2010).
David was convicted under Section 295-C under Pakistan's widely condemned blasphemy laws for derogatory remarks against Muhammad in a case registered at Karachi's Azizabad Police Station, with another case registered at Saddar Police Station pending. Maximum punishment for Section 295-C is death, though life imprisonment is also possible. On Feb. 25, 2010 he received a sentence of life in prison, which in Pakistan is 25 years, and was fined 100,000 rupees (US$1,170).
Chaudhry, who said he was David's counsel until Islamic threats against his life forced him to stop in July 2010, told Compass that the Christian had expressed fears for his life several times during the trial.
"David did not die of a heart attack as the jail officials are claiming," Chaudhry said. "He was being threatened ever since the trial began, and he had also submitted a written application with the jail authorities for provision of security, but no step was taken in this regard."
Conflicting versions of his death by jail officials also raised doubts.
A jail warden said David was reported crying for help from his cell today in the early hours of the morning. He said that David, who was breathing at the time, was transported to the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK), but that doctors there pronounced him dead on arrival.
He also said, however, that he had heard from colleagues that David was found dead inside his cell and that his body had been sent to the hospital for post-mortem, not for treatment. Investigations are underway, he added.
Karachi Central Prison Deputy Superintendent Raja Mumtaz said David was shifted to CHK for treatment after jail staff members found him crying for help with "one hand on the left side of his chest." He said the prisoner was first taken to a local healthcare center, but that doctors there suggested that he should be taken to a hospital for proper treatment.
Mumtaz said that David was shifted to the hospital at around 10:45 a.m. today and was alive when he reached the hospital.
Sindh Inspector General of Prisons Ghulam Qadir Thebo insisted to BBC that David died of natural causes, saying he was housed in a Christian-only wing in which no Muslim prisoners had access to him.
"Our investigations have not yielded any evidence of foul play," Thebo told BBC. "There is no evidence to suggest he was murdered."
David's family reached Karachi today to take custody of the body. An impartial probe and autopsy report is awaited, as no jail officials were ready to say on record whether they had seen any visible injury on David's body.
David's son, Aqeel David, told Compass that the family had been informed only that his father had suffered a heart attack and died while he was being taken to the hospital.
"We don't know anything besides this little piece of information that was given to us on the telephone," he said. "We are unsure about the circumstances surrounding my father's death because of the serious nature of the cases against him."
David's former attorney said that the trial in which David was convicted and sentenced was a sham.
"The judge acquitted Ahmad in this case, even though all 11 witnesses clearly pointed out his direct involvement in the incident," Chaudhry said.
In regard to the other blasphemy case registered at the Saddar Police Station, Chaudhry said he had cross-examined witnesses who had again accused Ahmad of mischief and absolved David of any wrongdoing.
"Ahmad's lawyer had filed an application for re-examining the witnesses when I withdrew from the case," Chaudhry added. "I stopped pursuing his cases last year because of serious threats to my life by Islamist groups who used to gather outside the courtroom."
Chaudhry said threats were made "both inside and outside the courtroom."
During the cross-examining of witnesses, he said, Senior Superintendent of Police Muhammad Afzal had also admitted that Ahmad was the real culprit and that David was arrested on the information of "some sources." Chaudhry said there was no relation whatsoever between Ahmad and his client before the trial started.
"They were complete strangers," Chaudhry said. "David was definitely framed in these cases."
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Islamists Raid House Churches in West Java
Demonstrators drive out 100 Christians in one service, stop worship in others.
JAKARTA, Indonesia, December 18 (CDN) — About 200 demonstrators from hard-line Islamic organizations in West Java on Sunday (Dec. 12) disrupted the worship of a church in Rancaekek district, Bandung, driving more than 100 worshippers from the building.
Members of the Islamic Defenders Front, the Indonesian Ulama Forum and the Islamic Reformist Movement arrived with the Civil Service Police Unit of Rancaekek district and sealed the house, thus leaving other churches that use it without a worship venue. The protestors also disrupted the worship of six other churches meeting in homes the same day.
The demonstrators arrived at 9 a.m., when the Huria Kristen Batak Protestant (of HKBP) Bethania church building had begun worship in the building where a pastor and his family live. The protestors urged the local government to seal the building immediately because it was a private house rather than registered as a place of worship.
About 10 minutes into the church's worship, the demonstrators removed by force more than 100 members of the HKBP church on Teratai Street, the pastor said.
"Because they were fearful, children and women were crying when they came out of their place of worship," the Rev. Badia Hutagalung told Compass by phone.
Hutagalong, 26, lives in the second story of the building. Church officials declined to say who owned the home.
Hutagalung said the congregation resisted the temptation to clash with the Islamic protestors, who were using ambulance sirens to disrupt the service.
The Civil Service Police Unit of Rancaekek district then affixed a document on the front of the building declaring, "This house has been sealed because it has violated Bandung Regency Regulation No. 16, of the year 2009, about building administration."
HKBP elder Jawadi Hutapea said the document was signed by the head of Rancaekek district, Meman Nurjaman, and the chief of the Civil Service police.
Nurjaman reportedly said use of a private house as a place of worship violated the cited regulation.
"It should be only a place to stay but in fact functioned as a place of worship," Nurjaman told Tempo News. "Now we've sealed the house. From now on, the house may only be used as a house to live in."
Hutagalung said the church was using the house because it had not been able to obtain permission to establish a church building under conditions imposed by Indonesian law. The Joint Ministerial Decree promulgated in 1969 and revised in 2006 requires places of worship to obtain the approval of at least 60 persons from the local community, mandates there be at least 90 church members, and the church must be approved by the the village head.
"These terms are very difficult for us to fullfil," Hutagalung told Compass.
The HKBP congregation was established in Rancaekek district in 1999, he added, because of the absence of a church for ethnic Bataknese in the area.
District head Nurjaman reportedly suggested that the church use a room at the College of Public Administration in Jatinangor, Sumedang Regency. Hutagalung said his congregation could do that, but he said not all the churches that use the building could merge together there.
"If we are forced to worship with other churches in the college complex, it is the same as closing the HKBP church in Rancaekek," Hutagalung said.
He said he had received the suggestion from the district head for the churches to merge worship in the college complex a few weeks ago. Hutagalung said he has sought permission for the churches to worship separately in the college complex, but so far he has not received a response from the college building administrator.
If the HKBP church has not found an alternative venue this Sunday, the congregation plans to worship in front of the house that has been sealed, he said.
Other Churches Targeted
Other churches based in homes in the district met with the same opposition from Islamic protestors.
The Indonesian Evangelical Tabernacle Church (GKII), which began 20 years ago, met at 9:15 a.m. but the Islamic demonstrators appeared and insisted that they disband immediately, said a GKII pastor identified only as the Rev. Margaretha.
She said worship ended within 20 minutes because the protestors broke through an iron fence to force their way in.
"The mob lifted and slammed the fence until it was damaged," Pastor Margaretha.
About half of the 60-member congregation, which consists mainly of women, was crying, she said. The protestors forced her to sign a letter promising not to use the house as a place of worship.
"They also damaged the door and the Christmas tree," Pastor Margaretha said. "In the stressful situation, finally I signed the letter."
Margaretha added that the demonstrators also took four chairs used for worship.
The Pentecostal Tabernacle Church also began its worship on Sunday (Dec. 12) before the Islamist demonstrators interfered.
The Rev. Filemon Sirait told Compass by phone that when the congregations began to worship at 9:30 a.m., the Islamic protestors suddenly massed in front of the house and forced them to stop.
Seeing that the demonstrators were willing to use force, the congregation finished their worship after only 15 minutes, he said.
"We worshiped only in prayer after that time," Sirait said.
The demonstrators then barged into the house with a document for the pastor and congregation to sign stipulating that they would not use the place for worship, he said.
"Because we were depressed and fearful, finally we signed the letter stating that we agreed not to use the residential house as a place of worship," Sirait said.
The church was established in Rancaekek district 12 years ago.
The Muslim protestors also disrupted the worship of the Church of Pentecost-Rancaekek, led by the Rev. Bungaran Silitonga. Established 10 years ago, the church has 40 members.
Silitonga told Compass that the Muslim demonstrators stormed into their house at around 2 p.m. and took 37 chairs used for worship activities.
"They took 37 chairs on the order of the district of Rancaekek," he said.
Silitonga called the head of Rancaekek district to complain about the stolen chairs, and by evening the official had found and returned them, he said.
Islamist protestors reportedly succeeded in sealing five of seven houses used for Christian worship on Sunday. Other churches whose house worship was disrupted were the Indonesian Christian Church, a Catholic Church and the Ecumenical Christian Church.
Posted in Christianity, Indonesia, Islam, Islamic Defender' Front, Pentecostalism	| Tagged 16, 1969, 1999, 2006, 2009, administration, affixed, alternative, ambulance, approval, approved, Badia Hutagalung, Bandung, Bandung Regency Regulation, Bataknese, broke, building, Bungaran Silitonga, chairs, chief, children, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, Church of Pentecost-Rancaekek, Civil Service, Civil Service Police Unit, clash, closing, college, College of Public Administration, community, complex, congregation, crying, damaged, demonstrators, disrupted, district, document, drive, driving, Ecumenical Christian Church, elder, establish, ethic, family, fearful, fence, Filemon Sirait, forced, front, GKII, hard-line, head, HKBP, house, house church, house churches, Huria Kristen Batak Protestan Church, Indonesia, Indonesian, Indonesian Christian Church, Indonesian Evangelical Tabernacle Church, Indonesian Ulama Forum, iron, Islam, Islamic, Islamic Defenders' Front, Islamic Reformist Movement, Islamist, Jakarta, Jatinangor, Jawadi Hutapea, Joint Ministerial Decree, law, live, local, mandates, Margaretha, Meman Nurjaman, members, Muslim, muslims, no, organizations, out, Pastor, Pentecostal Tabernacle Church, permission, Persecution, persons, plans, police, private, promulgated, raid, Rancaekek, registered, resisted, Rev, revised, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholics, room, sealed, second, service, signed, sirens, stolen, stop, story, suggestion, Sumedang regency, targeted, Tempo News, temptation, Teratai Street, venue, village, violated, West Java, women, worship, worshippers | Leave a comment
Life on Hold for Egyptian Christian Arrested for his Faith
Unresolved charge of 'defaming religion' leaves him in perpetual limbo.
CAIRO, Egypt, December 16 (CDN) — An Egyptian who left Islam to become a Christian and consequently lost his wife, children and business is waiting to see if the government will now take away his freedom for "defaming" Islam.
Ashraf Thabet, 45, is charged with defaming a revealed religion, Article 98f of the Egyptian Penal Code. The charges stem from Thabet's six-year search for spiritual meaning that eventually led him to become a Christian. During his search, he shared his doubts about Islam and told others what he was learning about Jesus Christ.
Local religious authorities, incensed at Thabet's ideas, notified Egypt's State Security Intelligence service (SSI), which arrested and charged him with defamation. If found guilty, Thabet would face up to five years in jail. But because prosecutors have made no move to try the case, Thabet lives in limbo and is subject to a regular barrage of death threats from people in his community in Port Said in northeast Egypt.
"I don't know what is going to happen in the future," Thabet said. "They're making life hard for me. I can't get back my computer. I can't get back anything."
Thabet said that before his search began he was a committed Muslim who did his best to observe its rules, including those for prayer and fasting.
"I wasn't an extremist, but I was committed to praying and to reading the Quran," Thabet said. "I went to the Hajj. I did the usual things. I followed the Quran for the most part."
Despite his efforts, Thabet admitted that his understanding of God was based on fear and routine, nearly rote obedience.
"There was no spiritual relationship between myself and God," he said. "In general I was always cautious about my relationship with God. I didn't want to do anything wrong."
Thabet started looking at Christian Web sites, but his real interest in Christianity began when he watched the film, "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004.
"When I watched 'The Passion of the Christ,' I was very touched by Jesus' story, and I wanted to read more about Him," Thabet said. "So I asked a friend how I could know more about Jesus, and he told me, 'The Bible.'"
His friend, a Christian Copt, did not get him a Bible until a month later because, Thabet thinks, he was afraid of being accused of proselytizing. Thabet began reading the Bible, which had a powerful impact on him, especially the Sermon on the Mount.
"I felt inside myself that these were the words of God," he said. "The Bible tells people to give and to give out freely, so these words couldn't be the words of a human being or a [mere] person, because human beings are inherently selfish."
Thabet was also struck by the lives that the early followers of Jesus led, especially their willingness to lose everything, including their lives, for Christ.
The final factor that led Thabet to become a Christian came from Islam's "Ninety-Nine Names of Allah," attributes of God according to the Quran and tradition. In the names, God is called a "healer" a "resurrecter" and "just."
"I started to compare all these characteristics with the characteristics of Jesus, and I saw that Jesus had a lot of the characteristics that God had, not only the human characteristics, being just and being kind, but there were similarities in the supernatural characteristics, like that He raised people from the dead," he said. "In the Quran only God could raise people from the dead. I noticed that Jesus could raise people from the dead, and that He could heal people. Once I started to notice
the similarities between God and Jesus, I started believing that Jesus is the Son of God."
Thabet said he cared about others "going the right way," so he started having conversations with Muslim friends.
At first, people respected Thabet or tolerated what was seen as an awkward curiosity. But after he told his friends they were "only Muslim by inheritance," they started to turn against him. They asked him what he was going to be if he wasn't going to be a Muslim.
"I told them I started to read about Christianity, and I was starting to believe in it, and that's when they brought the elders to talk to me," he said.
The meeting didn't go well. The Islamic leaders were unable to answer his questions and ended up yelling at him. Then they reported him to the SSI.
The SSI summoned Thabet and questioned him on his doubts about Islam.
Thabet said by the time he was done with the interrogation, the SSI officer looked almost sick and told him not to talk to anyone else in Port Said about religion.
"I don't encourage you to talk about these things with people or to open up these types of discussions, because it will just provoke people and make them angry," the officer told him, according to Thabet.
Two days later, Thabet said, the SSI ordered him to report for more questioning, this time with an officer who specialized in religious issues and countering missionaries. The officer wanted to know what made him start to doubt Islam. He asked specific questions about what Web sites he had been on and what books he had read, and whether he had been baptized.
Thabet said that at the time of his questioning, he was still struggling with his new beliefs. Part of him wanted something that would restore his faith in Islam, so he went to Internet chat rooms for religious discussion.
"A part of me wanted to feel that I was wrong, that there was an answer to my questions," he said. "I was looking for someone who would say 'No, no, this is how it is,' and that I would regain my trust back or not have any more doubts. But none of the people I talked to could answer me. They didn't say anything to any effect."
Thabet said he was always respectful, but Muslims found his questions provocative and became increasingly angry.
Eventually police came for Thabet. On March 22 at 3 a.m., he said, 11 officers from the SSI cut the power to his home, kicked down his front door and assaulted him in front of his crying wife and children.
Thabet quickly pulled away from the fight, once he realized they were officers from the SSI. The men swarmed over Thabet's home, seizing his computer and every book and CD he owned. They took him to jail.
Authorities interrogated Thabet non-stop for 12 hours, took a break and then interrogated him for seven more, he said.
Initially he was held for 15 days. Then authorities ordered he be held for another 15 days. Then they extended it again. Thabet said he spent the entire time in solitary confinement, and he wasn't informed of the "defamation of religion" charge against him until the end of 132 days in jail. He said he was not tortured, however, and that his interrogators and jailers were largely civil.
There was more hardship waiting for him at home. Muslim leaders in his neighborhood convinced his wife to divorce him and take his 10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.
"They gave her the money to file for a divorce, a car and another person to marry," Thabet said, adding that the Muslim leaders had offered him money too if he would stay in Islam. "In the beginning they tried to bribe me to come back to Islam, but I refused."
Thabet has only had a few brief moments with his children since he was arrested, mainly when his soon-to-be ex-wife came to their home to gather a few belongings. If she goes through with the divorce, according to Egyptian law it is likely Thabet will lose all parental rights to his children, including any right to see them.
In Egypt and most other Muslim-majority countries, leaving Islam is considered ample grounds for termination of parental rights. Thabet said the religious leaders consider him "lost to Islam" and are trying to "save" his wife and children.
He filed a report with police about the Muslim leaders bribing his wife – and about another man who swindled money from him – but police ignored both reports, he said.
Kamal Fahmi of Set My People Free to Worship Me, a group headquartered in Cairo dedicated to raising awareness about the problems faced by Muslims who become Christians, said that under Islam, "Muslim converts don't have the right to exist."
Arrests like Thabet's are common in Egypt.
"It is a tactic used to intimidate people and scare them from leaving Islam and taking alternative beliefs or moral codes," Fahmi said.
In Islam as it is most often practiced in Egypt, merely expressing doubt about Islam is considered wrong, Fahmi said. Questioning any of its claims is considered blasphemy and is punishable by imprisonment under a variety of charges in Egypt; it is punishable by death in some other countries.
"Saying, 'I don't believe in Muhammad,' is considered defaming Islam," Fahmi said. "Saying, 'I don't believe in Islam as it is not true,' can lead to death [murder], as you are considered an apostate," Fahmi said. "Even rejecting the Islamic moral codes can lead to the same thing. Criticizing any of the sharia [Islamic law] is considered blasphemy."
Thabet said he is uncertain what the future holds. He was released on Aug. 1 but, because he has the defamation of religion charge over his head – with no indication of when the case could go to court – he is unable to work and cannot even obtain a driver's license.
His savings are almost depleted, forcing him to borrow money from a Muslim friend. He is concerned about re-arrest and receives death threats on a regular basis. He is too afraid to leave his apartment on most days.
"There are a lot of phone threats," Thabet said. Noting he had been baptized three years ago, he said he has received phone threats in which someone tells him, "We are going to baptize you again with blood."
On numerous occasions while talking in Internet chat rooms, he has been told, "Look outside the window, we know where you are," Thabet said.
In recent days Muslims are angry at converts and at Christians in general, he said. "They're very worked up about religious issues."
He said he wants to leave Egypt but admits that, at his age, it would be very hard to start over. And if he stays in Egypt, he said, at least he will have a chance to see his children, however brief those encounters may be.
Since Thabet was released from jail on Aug. 1, authorities have seized his passport and summoned him four times for questioning. He said he thinks the SSI is trying to wear him down.
"Everyone is telling me that they [the government] want to make my life hard," he said. "The problem here in Egypt is the religious intolerance that is found in government ministries. The intolerance has reached a point where they can't think straight. Their intolerance makes them unaware of their own intolerance."
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Muslim Mob Kills Wife, Children of Christian in Pakistan
Fearing local religious leader, area police refuse to file murder complaint.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 8 (CDN) — A Muslim mob in Jhelum, Pakistan murdered the wife and four children of a Christian last month, but local authorities are too afraid of the local Muslim leader to file charges, according to area Muslim and Christian sources.
Jamshed Masih, a police officer who was transferred 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Gujrat to Jhelum, Punjab Province, said a mob led by Muslim religious leader Maulana Mahfooz Khan killed his family on June 21 after Khan called him to the local mosque and told him to leave the predominantly Muslim colony. Jhelum is 85 kilometers (53 miles) south of Islamabad.
"You must leave with your family, no non-Muslim has ever been allowed to live in this colony – we want to keep our colony safe from scum," Khan told Masih, the bereaved Christian told Compass.
Masih had moved to Mustafa Colony in Jhelum with his wife, two sons and two daughters and were living in a rented house. Masih said that a Muslim neighbor, Ali Murtaza, told him that area Muslims notified Khan, telling the religious leader, "We cannot allow these non-Muslims to live here, they will be a bad influence on our children."
An anxious Masih told his wife Razia Jamshed about the local Muslim response, and they decided to bring their concern to the pastor of a local Presbyterian church, Saleem Mall.
"Pastor Saleem said, 'I will also advise you to vacate the house, as it can be dangerous living there – these people can harm your family," Masih said.
Masih's neighbor, Murtaza, confirmed to Compass the response of the local Muslims and related incidents that led up to the murders. Murtaza told Compass that after Masih went to work at 7 a.m. on June 21, his children could be heard singing hymns before breakfast.
"Razia sent their eldest son to buy a packet of Surf [detergent], and he was singing a hymn on his way to buy the Surf," Murtaza said.
Neighbors saw Masih's s 11-year-old son come into the store, he said. The shopkeeper asked him if he was a Christian; the child responded that he was.
"The shopkeeper refused to give him the packet of Surf and spoke very harshly to him, 'I don't sell to any non-Muslim, you are not welcome here, don't you dare ever come to my shop again,'" Murtaza said.
The boy went home, upset, and told his mother about the encounter; she grew worried and called her husband, saying, "Jamshed, please come home quickly, the kids and I are very worried, we must leave this house today," Masih said.
His neighbor, Murtaza, said that shortly afterward some area residents came to the door with the Muslim religious leader, Khan.
"Your son has committed blasphemy against Muhammad, our beloved prophet – we can't allow him to live, he should be punished," Khan told Razia Masih, Murtaza said. "Razia got scared and said, 'My son couldn't do such a thing, he is only 11 years old.'"
Khan became furious and said, "Are we lying to you? You call us liars, how dare you insult us," Murtaza said. "Someone from the crowd hit something hard on her head, and she started bleeding. The children started crying and shouted for help. Razia kept shouting for help, 'Please have mercy on us, please let my husband come, then we can talk.'"
Jamshed Masih said his daughter telephoned police as the mob attacked his wife and children. He said he later learned that "the people kept shouting, 'This family has committed blasphemy, they should be killed."
Before police arrived, his family was murdered, he said.
Murtaza said Masih rushed home and was devastated to find the dead bodies of his wife and four children.
When Masih tried to file a complaint against Khan for the murder, Station House Officer (SHO) Ramzan Mumtaz refused to do so, according to Murtaza and Mall, the Presbyterian clergyman.
"He said, 'Khan is an influential man, and he said your son has committed blasphemy – we cannot do anything against him,'" Mall said.
Murtaza added, "The SHO just said, 'I am a poor man, I have a family, and I was pressured by higher authorities not to register the FIR [First Information Report] as Khan is a very influential man. I am sorry, I don't have anything in my hands.'"
Contacted by Compass, SHO Mumtaz confirmed that he responded to the request to file the complaint against Khan in these exact words.
Masih has filed a complaint with the chief minister of Punjab Province begging him for justice, Mall told Compass.
"We condemn this brutal murder of innocent children in the name of Islam," Mall said. "This has to stop now. We appeal to the government to let us live in peace."
Posted in Christianity, Islam, Pakistan	| Tagged ;province, advise, afraid, Ali Murtaza, allow, allowed, anxious, anything, appeal, area, arrived, attacked, authorities, bad, begging, beloved, bereaved, blasphemy, bleeding, bodies, breakfast, brutal, buy, called, cannot, charges, Chief Minister, children, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, clergyman, colony, committed, complaint, concern, condemn, confirmed, crowd, crying, dangerous, dare, daughters, dead, decided, detergent, devastated, door, eldest, encounter, exact, family, fearing, file, find, FIR, First Information Report, furious, give, government, grew, Gujrat, hands, hard, harm, harshly, head, heard, help, higher, hit, home, house, hymns, incidents, influence, influential, innocent, insult, Islam, Islamabad, Jamshed Masih, Jhelum, justice, keep, kids, killed, kills, leader, learned, leave, led, liars, live, living, local, lying, man, Maulana Mahfooz Khan, mercy, mob, mosque, mother, moved, Muhammad, murder, murdered, murders, Muslim, muslims, Mustafa Colony, name, neighbour, non-Muslim, notified, officer, packet, Pakistan, Pastor, peace, people, Persecution, police, poor, predominantly, Presbyterian, pressured, prophet, punished, Punjab, Ramzan Mumtaz, Razia Jamshed, refuse, refused, register, related, religious, rented, response, rushed, safe, Saleem Mall, scared, scum, SHO, shop, shopkeeper, shouted, shouting, singing, sons, sorry, sources, south, spoke, started, Station House Officer, stop, store, Surf, talk, telephoned, transferred, upset, vacate, welcome, wife, words, work, worried | Leave a comment
Hindu Nationalists in India Plan 'Religious Cleansing' in Madhya Pradesh District
Ground-breaking for 'reconversion rally' leads to attack on Christian house church.
NEW DELHI, May 20 (CDN) — Hindu nationalist organizations in Madhya Pradesh state have declared their intentions to rid Mandla district of all Christian influence by starting preparations for a large "reconversion" event next year.
A similar event in Dangs district, Gujarat state in 2006 was filled with Christian hate speech. As a result of anti-Christian sentiment stirred at the April 22 ground-breaking ceremony for the Madhya Pradesh "reconversion" rally to be held next February, Hindu nationalists attacked a house church in the district's Bamhni Banjar village on May 2, Christian leaders said.
More than 100 Hindu devotees from Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra attended the ground-breaking ceremony in Mandla, reported Patrika newspaper. A source present disclosed that leaders announced a list of objectives to be achieved before the festival, with one prominent agenda item being to drive away Christian pastors, evangelists and foreign aid workers from the district.
The newspaper quoted four Hindu leaders who have spoken out against foreign Christians and renewed their oath to obtain "reconversions" from supposed Hindus who had become Christians. The leaders pledged to "cleanse Mandla of Christians" and cleanse the Narmada River by means of the kumbh.
The Maa Narmada Samajik Kumbh (Mother Narmada Social Kumbh, with kumbh literally meaning, "pot") is scheduled for Feb. 10-12 on the Narmada, a river that flows through Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
After anti-Christian speeches at the ground-breaking ceremony, Mandla district reported its first attack against Christians in Bamhni Banjar village on May 2, said Pastor Rakesh Dass.
"This is a repercussion of the inaugural pledges revived by the Hindu community," Pastor Dass told Compass.
Around 40 Hindu nationalists from the Bajrang Dal surrounded the house of Pastor Bhag Chand Rujhiya, who has led a home fellowship for five years, and accused him of forceful conversion as they shouted anti-Christian slogans. Using abusive language, they pelted his house with stones as about 60 people were attending a worship service, Pastor Dass said.
"The mob was carrying deadly weapons like knives and rods," he said.
The mob left but soon returned with police, and officers took Pastor Rujhiya and his wife into custody. Their three frightened and crying children followed them to the police vehicle, Pastor Dass said. The couple was detained for around three hours and questioned while the Hindu mob gathered in front of the station and demanded that the pastor be handed over, with some shouting that they wanted to kill him.
The 60 church members also arrived at the police station, protesting the arrest of the pastor without evidence, and the Hindu mob began to try to persuade them to return to Hinduism.
"How much have these Christians paid you?" said some of the Hindu nationalists, according to Pastor Dass, who said they added, "We will pay you double the amount for returning back to Hinduism."
Police finally dispersed the mob and sent the pastor and his family away after forcing them to sign statements that they would no longer lead Sunday worship or pray with friends or relatives inside their house, and that they would not evangelize again in the area.
As the family returned, motorcyclists harassed them with intent to harm, said Pastor Dass.
Pastor Rujhiya, 36, and his family went into hiding. He returned to Bamhni Banjar on May 7, though he said he was still fearful as threats from Hindu nationalists continued.
"My wife and children say that we are ready to face whatever comes our way," he said. "We will not renounce our faith."
Pastor Rujhiya told Compass that local police have refused to provide any kind of security for him and his family. Officers have also refused to file a First Information Report, saying they do not register complaints for such "trivial matters."
Bamhni Banjar police station constable T.L. Jagela refused to comment to Compass, though he acknowledged that the couple had been forced to sign the pledges to forego evangelism and Christian activities in their home. Asked the reasons for the forced pledges, he said only that his senior officers "would know."
Christian leaders in Mandla submitted a memorandum to Superintendent of Police Kamal K. Sharma requesting his intervention. He promised local Christian leaders that he would look into the matter, but he told Compass, "I don't know what you are talking about."
Sharma denied any knowledge of the attack on Pastor Rujhiya's home or of the memorandum.
The violence against Christians in Madhya Pradesh state signals a major onslaught in the offing, warned Kurishinkal Joshi, president of the Madhya Pradesh Isai Sangh, an assembly of Christians in the state.
If Christians do not come forward to protest such atrocities, "the next Kandhamal will be in our state," Joshi told some 1,500 people at the meeting in Indore, the state's commercial capital, on May 2.
Kumbh Damage
Organizers of the kumbh hope for some 2 million participants, though attendance at such events often falls short of projections.
Originally the kumbh was a gathering of holy men to discuss Hinduism. Since then Hindu nationalists led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have steered the traditional definition toward their own ends. RSS leader Mukund Rao said the "social kumbh" began in 2006 with the Shabri Kumbh in Dangs, Gujarat – described as an attempt to counter the influence of foreign Christian workers in the area. It resulted in propaganda against Christians and heightened tensions.
Besides hate speeches before, during and after the event, the kumbh also led to the beating of Christians, with many abandoning the area, and much loss of Christian property, including graveyards. Christian graves were dug up and crosses desecrated.
A Compact Disc produced by the Shabri Kumbh Samaroh Aayojan Samiti (Organizing Committee) entitled "Shri Shabri Kumbh 2006: Spirituality along with the Wave of Patriotism," was banned by the Supreme Court of India because it incites "Hindus against the Christian community and suggests that Christians be attacked and beheaded."
The CDs were widely circulated, distributed and openly sold in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, as well as in northeastern states.
Posted in Christianity, Hinduism, India	| Tagged 2006, abandoning, abusive, accused, achieved, acknowledged, activities, agenda, aid, amount, announced, anti-Christian, arrest, arrived, assembly, atrocities, attack, attempt, attendance, attended, attending, Bajrang Dal, Bamhni Banjar, banned, before, beheaded, Bhag Chand Rujhiya, capital, carrying, CDs, ceremony, Chhattisgarh, children, Christian, Christianity, Christians, church, circulated, cleanse, cleansing, comment, commercial, committee, community, compact disc, complaints, constable, continued, conversion, counter, couple, crosses, crying, custody, damage, Dangs, deadly, declared, definition, demanded, denied, described, desecrated, detained, devotees, disclosed, discuss, dispersed, distributed, district, double, dug, evangelism, evangelists, evangelize, event, evidence, faith, falls, family, fearful, fellowship, festival, file, filled, finally, first, First Information Report, flows, followed, forceful, forcing, forego, foreign, friends, frightened, front, graves, graveyards, ground-breaking, Gujarat, harassed, harm, hate, heightened, hiding, Hindu, Hinduism, Hindus, Holy, home, house, house church, inaugural, incites, India, Indore, influence, inside, intent, intentions, intervention, item, Kamal K. Sharma, Kandhamal, kill, kind, knives, know, knowledge, kumbh, Kurishinkal Joshi, language, large, lead, leaders, leads, led, list, literally, local, longer, look, loss, Maa Narmada Samajik Kumbh, Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh Isai Sangh, Maharashtra, major, Mandla, matters, meaning, meeting, members, memorandum, men, mob, Mother Narmada Social Kumbh, motorcyclists, Mukund Rao, Narmada River, nationalist, nationalists, New Delhi, newspaper, northeastern, oath, objectives, obtain, officers, offing, onslaught, openly, organizations, organizers, paid, participants, Pastor, pastors, Patrika, pay, pelted, people, Persecution, persuade, plan, pledged, pledges, police, police station, pot, pray, preparations, present, President, produced, projections, prominent, promised, propaganda, property, protest, protesting, provide, questioned, quoted, Rakesh Dass, rally, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, reasons, reconversion, refused, register, relatives, religious, renewed, renounce, repercussion, requesting, result, resulted, return, returned, revived, rid, river, rods, RSS, scheduled, security, senior, sentiment, service, Shabri Kumbh, Shabri Kumbh Samaroh Aayojan Samiti, short, shouted, sign, signals, similar, slogans, sold, speech, spoken, spurce, starting, state, statements, steered, stirred, stones, submitted, suggests, Sunday, superintendent of police, supposed, Supreme Court of India, surrounded, T.L. Jagela, tensions, threats, traditional, trivial, try, Uttar Pradesh, vehicle, village, violence, warned, weapons, widely, wife, workers, worship | Leave a comment
Pakistani Muslims Abduct Young Christian Woman, Family Says
Mother beaten on two occasions for trying to recover her; police refuse to prosecute.
LAHORE, Pakistan, May 6 (CDN) — Muslims who kidnapped and forcibly converted an 18-year-old Christian woman to Islam severely beat her mother on two occasions to discourage her from trying to recover her daughter, lawyers said.
Muhammad Akhter and Muhammad Munir on April 25 broke into the home of 50-year-old widow Fazeelat Bibi while her sons were at work and beat her because they were upset at her continuous demands that they return her daughter Saira, Christian Lawyers Foundation (CLF) leaders told Compass.
CLF President Khalid Gill said that neighbors' calls to the police emergency number went unheeded as the men beat her in Lahore's predominantly Muslim Bostaan Colony.
On April 18 Muhammad Akhter and members of his family had beaten her with clubs and ripped her clothes when the widow, having received a tearful phone call from her kidnapped daughter that day, went to their house to argue for her release.
In Saira's telephone call to her mother, received at the house of Muslim neighbor Musarat Bibi, who is a constable, the young woman was crying as she said that Munir and Akhter were spreading false rumors that she had eloped with Munir, Fazeelat said. She said her daughter told her how Munir, Akhter and Munir's sister Billo Bibi had kidnapped her, stolen the jewelry of her dowry, forced her to convert to Islam and were pressuring her to marry Munir.
At the time she was kidnapped on March 10, Saira was engaged to a young Christian man of Youhanabad, a large Christian slum on the outskirts of Lahore, Fazeelat Bibi said.
"Saira's brothers and I were very joyful because we were about to fix her wedding date," she said.
Previously the radical Muslim family lived next door to the Christian family. On March 10 Munir, who is Akhter's uncle, came to the Christian family's home and told Saira that her mother was ill at her hospital workplace and wanted to see her immediately, Fazeelat Bibi said.
"Then Muhammad Munir deceitfully abducted Saira," she said. "It seemed as if Saira had vanished into thin air. At first my three sons and I sons searched for Saira, but our efforts were futile."
She accused Munir, Akhter and Munir's sister Billo Bibi of kidnapping her daughter. They have continued to threaten to kill her if she persists in trying to recover her daughter, she said. Her daughter, she added, has called her "persistently" from Charrar village saying that she has been kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam and is being pressured to marry Munir against her will.
"This also reveals that Saira has not tied the knot with Munir yet," Gill told Compass.
The distraught mother said she approached Kotlakhpat Police Station Inspector Rana Shafiq seeking help to recover her daughter, but that he flatly refused. The inspector told her the issue could be resolved at the local Bostaan Colony meeting, she said; the rulings of such a meeting of local elders, known as a Punchayat, have the equivalent of court authority in Pakistan.
Fazeelat Bibi said that several such meetings produced no resolution to her daughter's kidnapping, but that while present she heard the false rumor that her daughter had wed Munir. At the meetings she also learned that the Muslim men were keeping Saira at Charrar village outside Lahore.
Fazeelat Bibi told Gill and CLF Secretary Azhar Kaleem said that she was somewhat satisfied to learn at the meetings that her daughter was at least safe, but her relief vanished after the April 18 call from Saira. Her daughter told her that she had tried to escape three times, she said.
Once again the frail, 50-year-old woman sought the help of Inspector Shafiq, and again he refused to help, the CLF leaders said. Gill and Kaleem said that Shafiq was explicitly inclined to favor his fellow Muslims in the case, and that he told her to move to a Christian slum as no one would help her in Bostaan Colony.
Gill, who is also head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance in Punjab Province, and CLF Secretary Kaleem said they believe that Akhter, Munir and Billo Bibi had heavily bribed the inspector to keep him from prosecuting the Muslims.
Shafiq declined to respond to Compass calls, and the registrar of the Kotlakhpat police station, Abdul Qayyum, said Shafiq was not available for comment.
Saira was just 2 months old when her father, Pervaiz Masih, died and her mother and three brothers moved from their native Yansonabad village to Lahore in search of a better life, Fazeelat Bibi said. She said that she began working as a sanitary worker at a hospital in order to support them, while her sons began working as day-laborers when they reached their teenage years.
Saira is her only daughter, Fazeelat Bibi said.
Posted in Christianity, Islam, Pakistan	| Tagged abduct, Abdul Qayyum, accused, against, air, All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, approached, argue, authority, available, Azhar Kaleem, beat, beaten, began, believe, better, Billo Bibi, Boastaan Colony, bribed, broke, brothers, call, case, Charrar, Christian, Christian Lawyers Foundation, Christianity, Christians, CLF, clothes, clubs, comment, constable, continuous, converted, court, crying, date, daughter, day-laborers, deceitfully, declined, demands, died, discourage, distraught, door, dowry, efforts, elders, eloped, emergency, engaged, equivalent, escape, explicitly, false, family, Father, favor, Fazeelat Bibi, fellow, fix, flatly, forced, forcibly, frail, futile, head, heard, heavily, help, home, hospital, house, ill, immediately, inclined, inspector, Islam, issue, jewelry, joyful, keeping, Khalid Gill, Kidnapped, kill, knot, known, Kotlakhpat, Lahore, large, leaders, learn, learned, least, life, lived, local, man, marry, meeting, members, men, mother, moved, Muhammad Akhter, Muhammad Munir, Musarat Bibi, Muslim, muslims, native, neighbors, next, number, occasions, outskirts, Pakistan, Pakistani, persistently, persists, Pervaiz Masih, phone, poilce station, police, predominantly, President, pressuring, produced, prosecute, prosecuting, Punchayat, Punjab Province, radical, Rana Shafiq, reached, received, recover, refuse, refused, registrar, release, relief, resolution, resolved, respond, return, reveals, ripped, rulings, rumors, safe, Saira Bibi, sanitary, satisfied, search, searched, secretary, seeking, seemed, severely, Sister, slum, sons, spreading, stolen, support, tearful, teenage, telephone, thin, threaten, tied, trying, uncle, unheeded, upset, vanished, village, wed, wedding, widow, will, woman, work, worker, working, Yansonabad, years, Youhanabad, young | Leave a comment
Christians in Vietnam Hold Another Historic Celebration
Largest-ever event in northern part of country encourages house churches.
HANOI, December 21 (CDN) — For the second time in 10 days, Protestant history was made in Vietnam yesterday when 12,000 people gathered for a Christmas rally here.
The event, which took place in the large square in front of the entrance to My Dinh National Stadium in the heart of Hanoi, was said to be 10 times larger than any prior Protestant gathering in history in northern Vietnam. On Dec. 11 in southern Vietnam, an estimated 40,000 people attended a Christmas celebration in Ho Chi Minh City (see "Unprecedented Christmas Gathering Held in Vietnam").
Local sources said long-requested written permission for the event, entitled "Praise Jesus Together," never came in spite of several reminders. But four days before the event was to take place, Hanoi authorities and police told organizers – in words as close as they would get to granting permission – that they would "not interfere."
"One can hardly overestimate the importance of such an event in the lives of northern house church Christians," said one long-time Compass source. "For many, this will have been the first time to join in a large crowd with other Christians, to feel the growing power of their movement, to hear, see and participate in the high quality, and deeply spiritual mass worship."
The day before the event, Christians gathered near the stadium for final prayer and to help with preparations. Witnesses said the huge public square at the entrance to the stadium was arrayed with thousands of stools rather than chairs – plastic, backless, and bright blue and red. In 10-foot tall letters, "JESUS' was emblazoned on the backdrop to the stage.
Invitations had been sent through house church networks even as official permission for the event was still pending. When church leaders decided to move ahead only days before, Christians were asked to send out mass invitations by text-message, leading some to speculate whether this may have been the largest ever such messaging for a Christian event.
Nearby Christians as well as those bussed from more distant areas began to fill the venue hours before the event. They were not dissuaded by a Hanoi cool spell of 12 Celsius (56 Fahrenheit) with a chill wind. Bundled in thick jackets, their heads wrapped in scarves, they waited expectantly without complaint.
They were not disappointed. Witnesses said the throng deeply appreciated a program of outstanding music and dance, a powerful personal narrative followed by a gospel message and an extended time for prayer for the nation. As at the previous event in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec. 11 that house church Christians had long worked and prayed for, the program featured music from Jackson Family Ministries of the United States.
In a world of globalized gospel and praise choruses, songs included hymns such as "How Great Thou Art" as well as classic praise songs such as "Sing Hallelujah to the Lord." Witnesses said the music was accompanied by tasteful, emotionally engaging dance. Top Vietnamese artists performed, including news songs by Vietnamese songwriters, and a Vietnamese choir of 80 sang, as did a Korean choir.
A young man in his 30s who now pastors two house churches told the crowd how an encounter with Jesus proved more powerful than the grip of drug addiction. His story, simply and humbly told, proved an effective bridge to a Christmas evangelistic message by Pastor Pham Tuan Nhuong of the Word of Life house church. Then the winsome Pastor Pham Dinh Nhan, a top southern house church leader, gave a disarming but strong invitation to follow Jesus, witnesses said.
Organizers said approximately 2,000 people then poured forward in response, packing the large area in front of the stage.
The final portion of the program included a time of intense prayer for the nation, with pastors confessing and praying for righteousness for Vietnam's leaders, as well as for God's protection and blessing on their land. In their prayers they claimed Vietnam for Christ, witnesses said.
A high point for the throng was the superimposing of a large white cross on a yellow map of Vietnam on the backdrop. As the Korean choir sang a spirited revival hymn, the crowd raised thousands of hands and exploded in sound.
"The sound of crying, of praise, of prayer were blended as one, beseeching Almighty God for spiritual revival in Vietnam," said one participant.
The event was streamed live at www.hoithanh.com for Vietnamese and others around the world to see.
Until recently – and still in some places – most Vietnamese meet in small groups in homes knowing at any time there could be a hostile knock on the door, a source said.
"None of these groups is registered or recognized by the government," the source said of the crowd at yesterday's event. "What you see is Christians standing up!"
In addition to this event and the Dec. 11 event in Ho Chi Minh City, a large public Christmas rally was held by the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) at the Hoang Nhi church in Nam Dinh Province on Saturday (Dec. 19). Some 2,500 people gathered in the church's large courtyard, with sources saying 200 responded to an invitation to follow Christ.
In Tuy Hoa, on the coast of central Vietnam, a Christmas program is planned for Saturday (Dec. 26) in a 4,000- seat theater. Many smaller events are also planned in other areas, part of an unprecedented public display by Vietnam's Protestants.
At the same time, the freedom for Christians tolerated in large cities has not reached some more remote parts of the country, where ethnic minority Christians live. In Dien Bien Dong district of Dien Bien Province, authorities on Tuesday (Dec. 15) orchestrated immense ethnic social pressure on a new Christian couple to recant. The couple told Compass that police added their own pressure.
"The police said they would beat me to death, and take away all my possessions, leaving my wife a widow, and my children orphans with no place to live," the husband told Compass. "I folded. I signed promising that I would no longer follow God. I really want to, but it is very, very hard to be a believer where we live, as the officials will not allow us."
Posted in Christianity, Christmas, Communism, Special Days, Vietnam	| Tagged accompanied, added, addiction, allow, Almighty, appreciated, areas, arrayed, artists, attended, authorities, backdrop, backless, beat, began, believer, beseeching, blended, blessing, blue, bridge, bright, bundled, bussed, celebration, central, chairs, children, chill, choir, choruses, Christ, Christian, Christianity, Christians, Christmas, church, cities, claimed, classic, close, coast, Communism, communist, communists, complaint, confessing, cool, country, couple, courtyard, cross, crowd, crying, dance, death, decided, deeply, Dien Bien Dong, Dien Bien Province, disappointed, disarming, display, dissuaded, distant, district, door, drug, effective, emblazoned, emotionally, encounter, encourages, engaging, entitled, entrance, estimated, ethnic, Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North), evangelistic, event, ever, expectantly, exploded, extended, featured, fill, Final, first, folded, follow, forward, freedom, front, gathered, gathering, globalized, God, gospel, government, granting, grip, groups, growing, hands, Hanoi, hard, heads, hear, heart, held, help, high, historic, History, Ho Chi Minh City, Hoang Nhi Church, hold, homes, hostile, house church, house churches, How Great Thou Art, huge, humbly, husband, hymns, immense, importance, included, interfere, invitation, invitations, jackets, Jackson Family Ministries, Jesus, join, knock, knowing, Korean, land, large, larger, largest, latter, leader, leaders, leading, leaving, live, lives, local, man, map, mass, meet, message, messaging, minority, movement, music, My Dinh National Stadium, Nam Dinh Province, narrative, nation, networks, new, northern, official, orchestrated, organizers, orphans, outstanding, overestimate, own, packing, part, participant, participate, Pastor, pastors, pending, people, performed, permission, Persecution, personal, Pham Dinh Nhan, Pham Tuan Nhuong, place, places, planned, plastic, point, police, portion, possessions, poured, power, powerful, praise, Praise Jesus Together, prayed, prayer, prayers, preparations, pressure, previous, prior, program, promising, protection, Protestant, Protestants, proved, public, quality, raised, rally, reached, recant, recently, recognized, red, registered, reminders, remore, response, revival, righteousness, sang, scarves, seat, second, see, send, signed, simply, Sing Hallelujah to the Lord, small, smaller, social, songs, songwriters, sound, southern, speculate, spell, spirited, spiritual, spite, square, stadium, stage, standing, stools, story, streamed, strong, superimposing, tasteful, text message, theater, thick, throng, time, told, tolerated, top, Tuy Hoa, United States, unprecedented, unpredented, USA, venue, Vietnam, Vietnamese, white, widow, wife, wind, winsome, without, witnesses, Word of Life, words, worked, world, worship, wrapped, written, yellow, young | Leave a comment


text:
Barga Takes First Team All-NCAC Honors
Springfield, Ohio – The North Coast Athletic Conference announced this year's All-NCAC awards on Tuesday afternoon, as the Tiger's junior pitcher Jace Barga earned First Team for his role on the hill for Wittenberg.
The Versailles, Ohio native finished his 2018 campaign with a 4-3 record and 12 appearances on the hill for Wittenberg. Barga completed his NCAC stint with eight appearances and a 4-1 record in conference play. With just over 68 innings pitched on the season, Barga logged a 2.50 ERA with 55 strikeouts overall for the Tigers. Finishing the season atop the NCAC in ERA with 0.70, Barga also led the conference in multiple statistical categories including innings pitched (51.2), complete games (2) and shutouts tossed (2). The left-handed hurler tallied 35 of his 55 strikeouts in NCAC contests, placing him second in the conference strikeout rankings at the end of the season. Barga tossed 13 innings of scoreless ball with back-to-back combined shutout wins against Kenyon and Allegheny.
In his best season in a Tiger uniform, Barga has dropped his career ERA to 4.34 with over 130 innings pitched. By more than doubling his strikeout numbers from his first two seasons in the red and white, Barga currently has a K/9 ratio of 7.03.
"Jace had one of the best years I can remember of any pitcher I have ever coached. The entire season he was our most dependable pitcher, and the numbers he put up inside conference play were unparalleled by any other pitcher in the NCAC," said Head Coach Brian McGee, "Despite being named First Team All-Conference, I'm more proud of him for his commitment to the program and loyalty to the coaches. Anytime a coach implements change, you must have true leaders within the team buying into what you are doing. Jace has proven he fully trusts us, wants to win, and puts the program first. When you do those things it's easier to focus on the team, and it distracts you from selfishness that only gets you into trouble. Jace has the right attitude matched with an incredible feel for pitching and an excellent skill set. He worked hard with Coach Hites and developed a great deal this year. He is a true pitcher, not a thrower, but a pitcher, and a darn good one at that. We are all very proud of him."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hello there and welcome to another day of Clearly Besotted teasers. Today is all about Christmas for me. I have to admit it, I am one of those crafters who usually makes their Christmas cards in December! Clearly Besotted are releasing three Christmas stamp sets this month, I am using two of them today.
My card today uses the new adorable On Thin Ice stamp set. I started off by cutting a panel of white cardstock using the ME Femme Frames rectangle die. I then stamped the mice, ice, trees and sentiment using black ink. I masked off the various stamps as I went along so that I could make a scene. I then free-hand drew in the snow bank with a black pen.
The whole image was coloured using Copic Markers. I took a white A2 card base and added a sheet of paper from the Doodlebug Kraft In Colour - Colour paper pad to the front. The image panel was then adhered on top with foam tape. To finish off, I added a small amount of Quickie Glue pen to the mice's hats and sprinkled over Ice White Nuvo Glitter on to them.
COPIC MARKERS: Mice - C5, C3, C2, C1, R00, R000. Hats, gloves and skates - R89, R37, R29, R27, R24. Ice - BG11, BG000, BG0000. Trees - YG67, YG63, E57, E55. Snow - BG000, BG0000, BG10, 0. Sky - B00, B000, B0000, 0.
I am also using the wonderful new Let's Prance stamp set today. It is one of the smaller sets and I just love the reindeer in it. I have used it to make some Christmas tags.
I started off by cutting the CB Rounded Tag die (sadly retired) from white cardstock. I then took a SSS Stitched Square die and cut the centres from the tags. I stamped the sentiment, from the CB Many Mini Messages set, on to the bottom of the tags with black ink.
I then took the three reindeer images and stamped these on to acetate using black Stazon ink. These were added to the back side of the tags. I added Ruby Slippers Crystal Nuvo Drops on to the reindeer's noses. I then took a red R29 Copic Marker and coloured some hemp cord with it. Once dry these were tied in bows and adhered to the tags with mini clothes pins.
I had so much fun making these samples for today! I do hope you will head over and see Stephanie. She will have some fabulous cards to share with you, along with links to the rest of the DT sharing today. Thanks so much for visiting me today, see you tomorrow!
Cute card and love the tags!
Oh my! Those skating mice are too cute!! And I love your reindeer tags! Super!!!
So sweet....so in love with your tags!
Your card is so adorable! I also love the tags. What a great idea to use acetate! I never would have thought of that!
Hi Michelle, I really need some tips for stamping the Stazon on acetate. Mine won't come out clear !
I found the best way to do it was to only press down slightly. Just so that the ink goes on the acetate, if I pressed too hard, like I would when normally stamping, I didn't get a good impression. I hope that helps!
OMG! Your clear tags are A-MAZING!
Michelle, do you remember how big the tags themselves were and what size square punch you used. I'm starting my Christmas craft gathering and I like having all the supplies ready to use.
Hi Hope, the tag is approx. 3.4 cm x 2 cm and the square dies is approx. 3.7 cm x 3.7 cm. I hope that helps :) Sorry for the delay in replying.


A concern has been identified regarding the information provided with the Philips Ear Thermometer (DL8740) and Philips AVENT Smart Ear Thermometer (SCH740) ("Device"), that if it were to materialize, could pose risks for people being measured ('Patient').
Philips has become aware of a number of complaints related to possible inaccurate measurements by the Device. Philips has identified that the risk of delaying treatment can have serious consequences for newborns (0-3 months), small children (4-36 months) and Patients of any age that may not be able to communicate and take care of themselves. In case a measurement shows a normal temperature value whereas the Patient actually has a fever, then that inaccurate measurement might lead to delayed or improper treatment of an underlying medical condition such as infection, which could result in Patient injury.
Users can identify the affected Devices by their model number. The model number can be found at the back of the Device as shown in the picture. The model number should always be SCH740 or DL8740.


Gordon's Notes: Using Google co-op for health information.
Using Google co-op for health information.
Somehow I missed Google Co-op. Here it's being used to define resoures health information. These collaborative bookmarking, path sharing projects are all the rage, though until now I've not found one that worked for me.
The Google Co-op project is intriguing of course, it's getting hard to keep up with all of their inventiveness -- is Google trying to advance The Singularity all by itself?
Needless to say, the memex had this feature. Vannevar Bush's 1945 prototype for the WWW+ involved the sharing of links, connections and paths in a collaborative development effort.


The 10 meter telescope and Dark Sector Laboratory (DSL). If you have read Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, you might be concerned about research into Dark Matter at the Pole - but that is exactly what the 10 m telescope (a.k.a. South Pole Telescope) was built for.


Foundation Settlement is corrected by lifting the footing that foundation walls rest on. The Stratos Pier Piering System is the strongest, deepest driving pier in the industry and is back by 2 lifetime warranties.
Foundation walls that lean or bow more than 3″ are corrected by excavating the wall and moving it back to plumb. It is then restrained by using steel beams that either use the homes framing or the exterior soil to keep the wall from moving further.
Foundation walls that lean or bow are corrected by using steel beams that either use the homes framing or the exterior soil to keep the wall from moving further.


CAMDEN, Maine - Let us stop to observe a few mileposts on the downward path to the utter degradation of political discourse in this country.
A recent newspaper advertising campaign by "independent" groups supporting President Bush shows a closed courtroom door with the sign "Catholics Need Not Apply" hanging on it. The ad argues that William Pryor Jr., attorney general of Alabama and a right-wing, anti-abortion nominee to the federal appeals court, is under attack for his "deeply held" Catholic beliefs.
Actually, Pryor is under attack because he's a hopeless dipstick. That he also happens to be Catholic and anti-abortion has nothing to do with his unfitness for the federal bench.
The only person I know who believes that one's closely held religious and moral convictions should make one ineligible for the federal bench is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued last year that any judge who is opposed to the death penalty should resign, on account of it is the law.
By that reasoning, any judge who is opposed to abortion out of deep moral conviction should also resign. Even though that would include Scalia's resignation (an eventuation devoutly to be wished, in my opinion), I think he's wrong.
Pryor has said that Roe vs. Wade "ripped the Constitution and ripped out the life of millions of unborn children." Hey, there's objectivity for you.
His record on civil rights, states' rights and gay rights is equally ideological. He has a record of incendiary comments that certainly bring into question his "judicial temperament."
When the Supreme Court delayed an execution in Alabama, Pryor called its members "nine octogenarian lawyers." He once prayed for "no more Souters," a reference to Justice David Souter.
The New York Times observed, "He has turned the Alabama attorney general's office into a taxpayer-financed right-wing law firm." He has argued against a key part of the Voting Rights Act and was the only state attorney general to argue against the Violence Against Women Act.
Who cares if he's Catholic? He'd be a disgrace on the bench if he were a Buddhist.
Moving right on down the road to complete ideological madness, we now have the House Judiciary Committee threatening to investigate the sentencing records of every federal judge in the country for suspected "political" bias. All this stems from the matter of James Rosenbaum, chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, who thinks sentencing guidelines for low-level drug dealers are too harsh.
Is there anyone who doesn't think so? Even the Texas Legislature, that model of 19th-century thinking, has decided we should provide treatment for first-time small drug offenders rather than locking them up for years. Locking them up is getting to be a very expensive proposition in our very broke state, but surely that had nothing to do with the decision.
After Rosenbaum's testimony, the Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, prepared to subpoena Rosenbaum's records to see if he had imposed any "unlawfully lenient sentences." In fact, he had, giving one guy four years (nine months below the guidelines) and another a month less than the minimum recommended.
The sentencing guidelines are the consequence of a 1984 crime law, passed at the height of the drug hysteria, that took effect in 1987. Victoria Toensing, Rosenbaum's lawyer, said: "I was present at the creation of those guidelines. May God forgive me for ever supporting them." Amen.
Look, these sentencing guidelines are awful. Everybody knows they're awful, so now anyone who stands up and says so gets subpoenaed? Do you realize how banana-republic this is?
Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, one of the many ornaments we have exported to Washington, claims that the seven-member Sentencing Commission is "systematically trying to lessen the drug penalties." I should hope so. If showing evidence of elementary common sense is grounds for a subpoena, stick a fork in us, we're done.
The "Watch on the Rhine" quality of our public life these days deserves serious attention. As one who studies the small, buried stories on the back pages of major newspapers, I am becoming increasingly uneasy.
This is more than just "Boy, do their policies stink." There's a creepy advance of something more menacing than bad policies.
I keep thinking of Benito Mussolini's definition of fascism: "Fascism should more properly be called 'corporatism,' since it is the marriage of government and corporate power." When was the last time we saw this administration do something that involved standing up to some corporate special interest in favor of the great majority of the people?


text:
package com.orientechnologies.orient.core.sql.filter;

import com.orientechnologies.orient.core.command.OCommandContext;
import com.orientechnologies.orient.core.db.record.OIdentifiable;

/**
 * Represent a value inside a query condition.
 *
 * @author Luca Garulli
 *
 */
public interface OSQLFilterItem {

  public Object getValue(OIdentifiable iRecord, Object iCurrentResult, OCommandContext iContetx);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Height Requirement: 48" (122 cm) or taller.
Whirl back in time to prehistory. Be whipped around bends, dropped suddenly, and twisted and turned randomly. It is hair raising fun at the Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama.
In Dinoland USA at Disney Animal Kingdom. From the entrance continue onto Discovery Island and then take the first main right towards Dinoland USA. Continue to follow the main path till it runs straight into the Funfair. This ride is within the funfair and can be clearly seen as a large mass of metal in the air.
A rollar coaster for a fairground. Taking you up and dropping you fast down and then up and down again. There is also a lot of spinning around and around as you feel like you are going to fall off the edge of the ride and then are swung back to safety only to be thrown towards the edge again. This ride would not suit people wo do not like spinning or sudden drops. Not a very fast ride, but concentrates on the sensestions of falling or being thrown around in a controlled way.


Always great to see a proud Jew.
What a difference a decade makes in anti-Israel feeling.
A few years ago, I asked the question whether soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was anti Israel. I now have more to go on.


Space to the final round of the Eredivisie playoffs, which are giving away a place in the next edition of the Europa League.
The Vitesse will try to exploit the field factor and to worry its opponents, recently appeared in difficulty outside the home. Utrecht came out victorious only from one of the last nine matches played outside his own stadium: the one played on 18 February against Roda, where he won with a score of 4-1. To find an external match in which the biancorosso club has been able to keep its own inviolate, however, we must go back to December 13th 2017, the day of the 1-0 success on the Venlo.
The guests appear slightly disadvantaged in view of the challenge scheduled to Gelredome, during which they should still score one or more networks, which would be valuable in the perspective of the double comparison: in the event of a tie in the arc of 180 minutes, in fact, the goals achieved on the road would be double. Sander Van de Streek, Zakaria Labyad and Gyrano Kerk are good-natured offensive players and will probably create some problems for Vitesse, ready to bet on the talented Mason Mount, Bryan Linssen and Tim Matavz, who have already put on a few shows days ago, in front of ADO Den Haag.
VITESSE (4-2-3-1): Houwen; Karavaev, Kashia, Miazga, Buttner; Foor, Serero; Beerens, Mount, Linssen; Matavz.
UTRECHT (4-3-1-2): Jensen; Klaiber, Janssen, Leeuwin, Van der Maarel; Klich, Strieder, Ayoub; Van de Streek; Labyad, Kerk.


Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile: Talking cliques, with Amy Holder!
Please welcome the wonderful Amy Holder to my blog today! She's on tour with her new book The Lipstick Laws, and she's here today to share a little bit with us about her experience with cliques! We all know those cliques, the ones that taunt you and glitter with popularity. I'm anxious to see what Amy has to say, so without further ado I'll let her take it away!
"Fame is a fickle friend; sometimes you're in, and sometimes you're out." I've paraphrased Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter and Heidi Klum from Project Runway (my favorite show in the world!) to start off this post because I think the quote mash-up is relevant to my guest post topic: high school cliques/popularity. This mash-up perfectly summarizes the unpredictability and sometimes cut-throat temperament of the world of high school cliques and social hierarchies. Plus, I really think all life lessons can be learned from Harry Potter and random reality shows… but I'll save that theory for another post.
Since THE LIPSTICK LAWS is about the rise to and fall from popularity, I often get asked what my popularity/social status was as a teen. The truth is I was very social. In fact, my parents avoided the headache of my constant phone usage by getting me my own phone line in my bedroom – every teen girl's dream at the time (before cell phones were attached to everyone's hip). I loved my phone, my friends, fun, the mall, and boy ogling (a very important sport)… but I hated the clique mentality that went along with high school. So by the end of high school, I liked to consider myself a cliff-jumper…er, I mean a clique-jumper. Technically, jumping from clique to clique is a little like jumping off cliffs…but I'll save that analogy for a different post as well. Although I had a very tight group of friends, I tried not to glue myself down to one clique. I had friends from several different groups (and even some from different schools that I met through work)… and I was very happy that way. But it wasn't always like that for me… dun, dun, dunnnn….
In my school, the cliques were pretty clearly defined, and by the middle of ninth grade you were typically pegged into one with little wiggle room to get out. After being a relatively sheltered, goody-goody, straight-A student for my whole elementary and middle school career, I was ready to break free from that image and be a little rebellious. I made it my mission in the summer before ninth grade to go up a few notches on the popularity ladder. Soon enough my strategic plan worked; my new clothes and style, new friends, new attitude, and promotion to a new more popular lunch table brought me the status I thought I was looking for. However, I soon realized that I wasn't as happy as I expected…and I definitely didn't feel as comfortable being myself in my new role. Eventually, it dawned on me that I was giving more up than I was gaining in order to appease and blend in with a clique. This made me realize that I didn't want to be confined to one clique or one set of friends, and in turn, I took up cliff-jumping… er, clique-jumping (they're really one in the same).
So, if I have one piece of advice for you to take from my personal experience, it's to not get hung up in the popularity scaling, clique mentality of high school… be who you are and hang out with who you enjoy! Ten years from now the friendships you make with the people you enjoy the most are going to be important, not what clique you fit into in high school. Your true friends will accept you for who you are, not how you look, who you hang out with, or how popular you are. So get out there and make lots of friends, regardless of the clique they fit into. And don't be afraid to be a cliff-jumper…just remember to wear a helmet… and maybe some knee pads.
At Penford High School, Britney Taylor is the queen bee. She dates whomever she likes, rules over her inner circle of friends like Genghis Khan, and can ruin anyone's life with a snap of perfectly manicured fingers. Just ask the unfortunate few who have crossed her. For April Bowers, Britney is also the answer to her prayers. April is so unpopular, kids don't even know she exists. But one lunch spent at Britney's table, and April is basking in the glow of popularity. But Britney's friendship comes with a high price tag. How much is April willing to pay?


text:
This is still a truly glorious proposal
Ragging on Ritchie
He's made it over the years but still glorious:
I have argued for a long time, and right through the 2008/09 banking crisis, that the bank payments platform should be taken out of the control of creating banks and be brought under state control. This is because the creaking architecture of private banking cannot be permitted to hold the country to ransom during banking crises, requiring that banks be bailed out to maintain the infrastructure for bank payments.
What is instead required is a banking system where the accounts and payments structure is all under state control but banks provide a credit creation service based on that infrastructure in which private capital takes the risk of default without their being macroeconomic risk to the state, or risk to bank depositors because the accounts of a failed bank can be readily transferred to another operator if a bank fails. Call this the Railtrack model of banning if you like, with the infrastructure being state owned and with licensed banks working on it.
The organisation that has proven to be the worst at large scale software projects – the state – should be put in charge of the software for the entire banking system.
Can't see any problem with that at all. Can you?
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5 thoughts on "This is still a truly glorious proposal"
svs September 3, 2021 at 1:05 pm
They could co-opt the Post Office's design & development team! Trebles all round!
Van_Patten September 3, 2021 at 3:20 pm
Apparently the B$£%ard is in Sheffield today, abusing the taxpayer's hard earned money.
That (research) agenda is at the interface of political economy, accounting, tax and climate change. It will look at tax transparency, audit and accounting reform, hollowed firms and sustainable cost accounting.
And chillingly for anyone believing in Freedom and the right to exist unmolested by the state.
We are going to be busy
The sooner a purge of such beings is carried out as a matter of some urgency the sooner we can all sleep soundly.
Bloke in North Dorset September 3, 2021 at 3:21 pm
Wow, he's going to be in the tootie now.
Guy who thinks the State should everything says he'll let private industry run something. What will the left, especially the unions, think? No more grants from the TUC methinks.
JJ Walker September 3, 2021 at 3:51 pm
Having worked with core banking software, it's good it's varied. Most systems have overlap in features but most of the time each bank needs specific components built for them and specific to them. It would be a travesty if we were all forced to use what HMRC decides is adequate.
moqifen September 3, 2021 at 8:54 pm
It's the first step in his plan to have your wages paid to the government who then deducts the tax and national insurance and then pays it to you (a genuine proposition by the potato) All your money belong to us!
Jim on Hey, maybe Brandon didn't get a cut of Sonny's money?


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text:
Utah Researchers Find Gigantic Magma Reservoir underneath Yellowstone
A research team from the University of Utah reported Thursday in the journal Science that they have found a missing link in Yellowstone National Park' underground volcanic structure – a huge reservoir of magma.
The reservoir mainly contains solid hot rock, but some of the rock formations are melted. The newly-found reservoir is nearly 5 times larger than the magma chamber located above it. Scientists claim that the magma in the reservoir could fill the entire Grand Canyon.
Additionally, the reservoir sits on a large mantle plume that carries hot magma from the Earth's hot core to surface layers . Yellowstone's volcanic system remained nearly unchanged for 17 million years with slight deviations caused by shifts in the North American tectonic plate. This plate usually moves about an inch every year southwestwards.
As a result, Oregon, Nevada and Idaho have a complex system of empty calderas that marked the tectonic plate's movements. Similar tectonic activity was detected in the Hawaiian Islands, when the Pacific plate crossed over a volcanic hot spot causing a series of volcanoes to resume activity.
But Yellowstone hosts one of the largest volcanoes in the world. Scientists claim that a Yellowstone eruption would be nearly 1,000 times more violent than Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980. The ripple effects would be felt at a global scale, so scientists seek to monitor the giant sleeping volcano as closely as they can.
Utah researchers explained that Yellowstone's updated volcanic system looked like a giant conduit or a pipe that starts down at 1,000 kilometers. Yet, the complete image of the system does not alter the current risk assessment of the volcano. Instead it helps researchers gain a complete view on its mechanics.
"Really getting an idea of how it works and understanding how these large caldera-forming eruptions may occur, and how they might happen, would be a good thing to understand,"
acknowledged Jamie Farrell, a co-author of the paper and researcher at the University of Utah.
Mr. Farrel also admitted that no scientist was able to witness a really large volcanic eruption. Instead, researchers usually scale small-scale eruptions on Yellowstone's size and try to figure out what causes them.
Currently, scientists believe that the next calderic eruption could occur northeast of the current giant crater, or caldera. They estimate that the magma reservoir located beneath the magma chamber could be filled with enough magma to create a new caldera to the northeast through a series of explosions.
Yellowstone witnessed a calderic eruption about 640,000 years ago. The resulting giant crater was about 25-by-37 mile-wide. In the meantime the caldera was masked by lava flows and the Yellowstone Lake which partially filled the area. The only sign that Yellowstone sits on an old caldera is the lack of any mountain at the core of the park because mountains were virtually pulverized during the last eruption.
During their study, scientists used seismic data to map Yellowstone's volcanic system. Yellowstone is very active and has hundreds of small quakes every year. But the speed of the quakes can vary greatly due to the materials they have cross to reach surface. For instance, in hot rock layers, seismic waves move slower, while in cold rock layers they usually speed up.
By analyzing data provided from several sensors, the Utah team was able to obtain an accurate map of the cold and hot rock layers beneath Yellowstone.
Image Source: Volcanic News Eruptions (blog)
Filed Under: Headlines, Tech & Science


Aditya is an eclectic guitarist, composer and songwriter. He graduated from Berklee College of Music (USA) in 2010, where he received the Berklee Achievement Scholarship and won the Kenwood Dennard artist competition. Aditya Balani was chosen as one the featured artists for Jazz Revelation Records for 2010, and nominated for best song (Jazz/Blues) for the BIG STAR Indian Music Academy awards. A rare guitarist who performs microtonal music, some of his tunes feature a unique approach to fretless guitar, developed from sarod playing techniques.
Aditya shares a passion for music education, he is the Academic Director at Global Music Institute in New Delhi, which he founded along with his brother Tarun Balani (drummer/composer) in 2011. The first of its kind in India, the Institute aims to promote musical diversity with an emphasis on national and international collaboration in faculty for teaching and performance.
Formed in 2008, Aditya Balani Group, a cinematic-world-jazz ensemble brings together talented musicians from countries across the globe. Aiming for true artistic expression and drawing from their ethnic roots each musician adds a unique color to their sound, which is an exciting blend of the spontaneity and harmonic interplay of Jazz with the sheer intensity of melodies and rhythms influenced by Indian Classical/Folk music, and various other musical traditions of the world.
In India: Delhi International Arts Festival, NH7 Weekender, Jazz Utsav, Congo Square Jazz Festival, Shisha Jazz Fest, Aquajam Festival, TaBlu Jaipur and Literary Fest.
Aditya performed with bands like Advaita, Aritistes Unlimited, Crimson, Think Floyd, Incognito and performed with international artists like Kenwood Dennard, Shye Ben-Tzur, David Fiuczynski, Carl Clements and Shubha Mudgal to name a few.