The dark side of faith in Africa

The town of Yelwa sits squarely in the "middle belt" of Nigeria, an area where the Christian majority south and the Muslim majority north grind away at each other in spasms of religious violence that would make an inquisitor blush. An article in the current Atlantic Monthly "God's Country" by Eliza Griswold, recounts one of these episodes of religious violence.

There were bullet-ridden bodies strewn around. A church was set on fire by an arsonist's hand. Then the school and the nursery were set ablaze. Members of the congregation were shot by armed gunman. In all, 78 Christians were killed and placed in a mass grave. Fortunately, the pastor of the destroyed church survived but lost seven members of his family that day. This was the result of a coordinated attack on a Christian church by Muslims in the Nigerian town of Yelwa. A week later, Yelwa was surrounded by hundreds of armed men, some sporting tags identifying them as members of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

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Calls to pardon 'UK's last witch'

Helen Duncan was tried under the Witchcraft Act

The family of the last person in the UK to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act will mark the 50th anniversary of her death by calling for her pardon.

Medium Helen Duncan, who was born in Callander, Perthshire, was imprisoned using the law during World War II.

She was targeted by the government after revealing to a séance audience that a warship had sunk before the news had been released to the public.

Her grand-daughter is particularly angry at the accusations of treason.

Mary Martin, of Edinburgh, said Mrs Duncan had been accused of being a traitor.

Spiritualist churches

"When she first came back home after prison she was never the same.

"She always had a bit of a glow about her but she seemed to have lost that.

"Some people said it was treason. My grandmother had two sons and two son in laws in the forces ... and there is no way she would have given anybody information."

Mrs Duncan became one of the most famous mediums of her time, heading a network of spiritualist churches.

During the war she lived in Portsmouth, the home of the Royal Navy.

She has put us on the right side of the law by bringing in the 1952 act Mary Armour Medium

At a séance in 1943 it was claimed that the spirit of a sailor from the HMS Barham appeared.

The vessel was only officially declared lost several months later.

She was arrested in 1944 and sentenced to nine months in prison at the Old Bailey for crimes under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.

While in prison she was visited by Winston Churchill.

When he was re-elected in 1951 the Witchcraft Act was repealed and three years later spiritualism was officially recognised as a religion.

Campaigners to pardon Mrs Duncan have set up an online petition.

The campaign is backed by the British Society of Paranormal Studies.

Medium Mary Armour, who wrote her biography, said: "She has put us on the right side of the law by bringing in the 1952 act."

Christian Missionaries Lie and Break Law To Make Converts

"Evangelist inroads in Muslim Morocco"

Jerusalem, Israel - In the past few years, increasing numbers of Westerners have been converting to Islam. Agence France Presse recently reported annual figures in France alone of 30,000 to 50,000. But a new phenomenon – largely unreported in the Western media – is occurring: Muslims, especially in the Maghreb (north-west Africa) are becoming Christians.

The controversy over the conversions has been most acute in Morocco. Since the beginning of the year there have been numerous articles in newspapers such as Le Matin, La Gazette du Maroc, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, and even business magazine La Vie Economique and political weekly Telquel have written about this "greatest danger."

According to most reports, the culprits are American evangelical missionaries operating in major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Fez to remote areas in the mountains or the countryside.

The statistics differ wildly: Missionaries are reported to number anywhere from 150, according to French weekly newsmagazine Le Nouvel Observateur, to the 800-plus figure most often used. Converts are said to number anywhere from 7,000 to 58,000. These discrepancies are easily explained by the fact that both missionaries and converts have to stay constantly below the radar.

Even though Morocco is a much more tolerant country than say Saudi Arabia regarding freedom of religion, it nonetheless imprisons anyone trying to convert a Muslim for up to three years.

Karen Thomas Smith, one of the four officially registered American pastors in the country explains that because of this missionaries have to pass for businessmen or officials from NGOs.

THE RECENT visit of the American televangelist Josh McDowell, invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received by King Mohammed VI, has sparked lots of conspiracy theories. In fact, Le Journal Hebdomadaire reported on January 8 that this evangelization campaign was part of US President George W. Bush's campaign in the current war. Unsurprisingly, the article pointed out that this was also the goal of the neocons and the Zionists.

Nationalist MP Abdelhamid Aouad went even further when he declared that the evangelists' ultimate goal was to convert 10 percent of the Moroccan population by 2020. He even raised this issue in the Moroccan Parliament and asked the minister of Islamic affairs what the government was doing about the massive evangelization underway. Despite the minister's assurance that there was nothing to worry about, in March the authorities deported on "immigration grounds," a South African church representative who had been in the kingdom since 1999.

Also, a March "confidential" report ordered by the government on the topic of conversion and cited by La Gazette du Maroc, confirmed that there were indeed around 800 foreign missionaries in the kingdom. Qualified as "top-notch proselytizers," they used all available means such as Web sites, radios, satellite TV, video and audio tapes and books to succeed in their mission. Indeed, plenty of bookstores in Morocco carry translations of the Bible printed in the US and in French. According to one pastor, some missionaries also openly distribute on the streets of Casablanca leaflets about Christianity mostly meant for young people and promising them "a better life."

CLEARLY, THE evangelists are focusing their energies on the young and the poor, but that's not the whole picture. Another target, according to Pastor Jean-Luc Blanc are the intellectuals and the privileged. However, there is no typical profile of a convert. On March 5, the French daily Le Monde published numerous interviews with converts in Morocco and Algeria.

Yacine, a 30-something Moroccan executive who is very happy about the recent publicity about converts, said: "The essential point is that one talks openly about Moroccan Christians. It is proof that it exists and that it is possible. No matter what they say about us. The taboo is lifted."

Another convert in his 30s, Abu Ghali, pointed out that most conversions are initiated by Moroccans themselves and added: "If Moroccans are given the opportunity to compare and choose, then you'll see lots of them going towards Christianity."

But by far the most striking testimony comes from a 45-year-old Algerian convert called Myriam. In 1985, she was a very pious Muslim and had just learned that her best friend had been hiding that she was a Christian. At first she decided that her friend was "impure" and that she would not talk to her ever again. Then she "decided to pray for her friend to come back to Islam" and, finally, in 1987 Myriam decided to read the Bible and converted. She has since received numerous death threats and had to eventually leave Algeria in 1994 for France where she studied theology. Today, Myriam is a pastor in the South of France.

The Arab press has been quick to accuse the US evangelists for the massive conversion numbers, therefore playing into the hands of the Islamists who advocate an end to the semi-freedom of religion in Morocco. But this assumption is wrong because as many observers emphasized, some Muslims are disillusioned by the crimes committed in the name of Islam, especially in Algeria by the Islamists and al-Qaida's terrorist acts and are looking for something else.

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SECRET OFFICIAL CHINESE DOCUMENTS REVEAL WIDESPREAD CAMPAIGN OF RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

Christians,Falun Gong Targeted
New Freedom House Report Analyzes Seven Chinese Government Documents that Reveal Official Repression

WASHINGTON, DC, February 11, 2002 -- Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom today released a report analyzing seven never-before-seen, top-secret Chinese government documents detailing an official crackdown against large, unregistered Christian churches and other religious groups nationwide. The Center had the official documents authenticated by renowned expert and exiled former Chinese government journalist, Su Xiaokang.

The seven documents, issued between April 1999 and October 2001, detail the goals and actions of China's national, provincial and local security officials in repressing religion. They provide irrefutable evidence that China's government, at the highest levels, aims to repress religious expression outside its control, and is using more determined, systematic and harsher criminal penalties in this effort. Hu Jin-tao, designated as the successor of President Jiang Zemin (and regarded by many China observers as a member of a younger, more liberal generation of communist party leaders) is quoted in the document as endorsing the drive against the Real God church. The Minister of Public Security is quoted giving the order to" smash the cult quietly." (Document 4).

The documents and Freedom House analysis are available online at: www.freedomhouse.org/religion

"These documents provide irrefutable evidence that China remains determined to eradicate all religion it cannot control, using extreme tactics," said Center for Religious Freedom Director Nina Shea. "Normal religious activity is criminalized, and, as the December death sentences brought against South China church Pastor Gong Shengliang and several of his co-workers attest, the directives outlined in these documents are being carried out with ruthless determination," she said.

"President Bush, who has repeatedly voiced concern for religious oppression in China, must speak out forcefully and publicly in support of religious freedom during his state visit to China next week," said Ms. Shea.

On the eve of President Bush's first state visit to China, Ye Xiaowen, the head of China's Religious Affairs Bureau, wrote in January 2002 that repression is not working and suggested that a more nuanced approach is needed. In fact, the documents reveal that a brutal, but more clandestine approach, is being employed to crush unregistered churches and religious groups.

Several of the documents focus on measures to "smash" the Christian South China church and the Real God church, which, Chinese authorities state, rivals Falun Gong in its reach and dangerousness. Other documents mention Falun Gong, the Unification Church, and other banned religious groups. In all, 14 religious groups are listed in Document 1 as "evil cults."

Several of the documents indicate that Beijing is losing its battle to control religious expression. They note with palpable alarm that the Real God group is growing rapidly throughout 22 Chinese provinces. In Document 4, authorities reveal that "inner circles" of the communist party and government officials have secretly joined the banned Real God church, and instruct officials to find out who among them are members of the group.

The documents are notable for their crudeness in understanding the religions the government purports to control. Revealing a fundamental misunderstanding or deliberate misinterpretation of the New Testament, Document 1 uses a basic Christian doctrine that Christ is in every believer to accuse churches of "deifying" their leaders, a practice defined as "cult-like." China is an officially atheist state that arrogates to itself the authority to define orthodoxy, determine dogma and designate religious leaders.

Document 2 betrays deep paranoia on the part of Chinese officials. It raises particular concerns about public unrest over China's entry into the WTO; it ties this unrest to Western support of democracy movements ("Democratic Party of China"), and religious groupings, especially Falun Gong; it accuses the Vatican of "still waiting for any opportunity to… draw the patriotic religious believers up to them and incite them to rebel."

In Document 4, "Praying for world peace," ecumenical relations between churches, printing publications and developing a diocesan, parish and prayer group-like organizational structure, are all seen as dangerous.

Document 4 also views with alarm ecumenical relations between the Protestant house-church Real God and the underground Catholic Church. Real God is also found to have ties with Tianenmen Square student protest leaders.

Measures outlined to be taken against the banned religious groups include surveillance, the deployment of special undercover agents, the gathering of "criminal evidence," "complete demolition" of a group's organizational system, interrogation, and arrest, as well as the confiscation of church property. Document 2 repeatedly refers to the use of "secret agents" to infiltrate "cults," underground Catholics, businesses, joint ventures, people with 'complicated political backgrounds," prestigious colleges and universities and other organizations.

Copies of the documents, along with translations, were provided to Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom by Mr. Shixiong Li and Mr. Bob Fu of the New York based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. A full translation, with explanatory notes, can be found on the Center's web page www.freedomhouse.org/religion, or can be emailed.