Prominent Chinese Christian Lawyer Li Baiguang Dies Suddenly in a Military Hospital
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on February 26, prominent Chinese Christian lawyer Li Baiguang died suddenly due to liver failure in PLA Bayi Hospital, Nanjing. He died at the age of 49 and is survived by his wife, Xu Hanmei, and their eight-year-old son. According to his cousin, Liu Peifu, who is also his partner at their law firm, Li died of final stage liver cancer, though he appeared to be healthy beforehand.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Liu said, "He had never gone through a physical exam before, so he didn't know that he had the condition. He was sent to the hospital after he felt ill. He only learned of it (last stage liver cancer) these past two days."
Reuters reported that the hospital where he died declined to comment.
Liu also stated that Li was not detained by the authorities before his death. However, his longtime friend Bob Fu of China Aid finds his death suspicious given that Li was just in Washington D.C., attending the National Prayer Breakfast, at the beginning of the month. "He did not have liver related illness before and his death raises a lot of questions," Fu said."Chinese regime should be fully held accountable."
Last October, Li was kidnapped by more than 10 Public Security Bureau plainclothes officials in Zhejiang province when he was defending victims of land grabs. He was beaten severely and threatened with dismemberment should he refuse to leave. They abandoned him on the side of the road after leaving him with bruises and soft tissue contusions. Li Baiguang, a devoted Christian and human rights lawyer, took on hundreds of rights defense cases in the past decade. He was arrested multiple times for his work. He received the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy in 2008. His dedication to freedom and human rights was also recognized by former president George W. Bush. Last year, China Aid presented Li with the 2016 Courage Award for Defense of Religious Freedom in China. Other recipients include renowned Christian lawyers Zhang Kai, Gao Zhisheng, and Li Heping.
Gina Goh, ICC's Regional Manager, said, "We are saddened by the death of Mr. Li, a brother in Christ who stood up for persecuted Christians in China and became persecuted by the authorities himself. He will be remembered as a fighter for the oppressed and an advocate for freedom and democracy. While we keep his family in prayer, forget not those Christian lawyers who are still suffering at the hands of the communist regime."
Suspected Al Shabaab Militants Kill Three Christians in Northeast Kenya, Sources Say
Suspected members of Islamic extremist group Al Shabaab shot three Christians to death in northeastern Kenya at 1 a.m. on Friday (Feb. 16), sources said. Targeting Kenyans who came from other areas to work in predominantly Somali Wajir, some 100 miles from the Somali border, the suspected terrorists from the Somali rebel group entered the sleeping quarters of personnel at Qarsa Primary School and killed two Christian teachers and the wife of one of them, sources told Morning Star News.
After killing Seth Oluoch Odada, his wife Caroline and teacher Kevin Shari, one of the assailants said in the Somali language, “These infidels [non-Muslims] should be wiped out,” a teacher who survived the attack told a worker at Wajir Referral Hospital, the worker told Morning Star News.
The pastor of an area church, undisclosed for security reasons, told Morning Star News that Odada and his wife attended his church. “We are very concerned about this selective kind of attack on non-locals who are also Christians in this region,” the pastor said. “Our other church members are not safe. Many of the church members, including teachers, have started fleeing the area to their home villages, and some did not attend the church for the Sunday service.” It was not known if Shari belonged to a church. The bodies of those killed have been transferred to Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi.
The hospital worker said that after shooting the couple, one of the assailants entered the house Shari shared with the surviving teacher. The gunman shot at Shari, and the same bullet struck the hand of the survivor, who fell down and pretended to be dead, the hospital source said, adding that the injured man said the shooter wore a mask typical of Al Shabaab militants. The area pastor said local people believe area residents have joined Al Shabaab.
“I think these are the people who killed the three Christians,” he said.
Wajir is becoming increasingly dangerous for Christians since Al Shabaab militants appear to have shifted from Mandera, where they have carried out attacks in the past few years before the government recently erected a 10-kilometer wall on the border there, the pastor said. Fear has shaken Christians in Wajir, he said. In Garissa, about 200 miles south of Wajir also near the Somali border, Al Shabaab has also been active. The pastors fellowship in Garissa reported several members did not appear for Sunday services. “We as the pastors fellowship do register our concern to the government to protect Christians living in this volatile northeastern country,” the chairman of the pastor’s fellowship said. The Wajir branch of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers called for the withdrawal of all non-local teachers in Wajir County if the government fails to increase security.
“We cannot close our eyes as non-local teachers are being butchered,” a union official told Morning Star News. Education along Kenya’s border with Somalia has been hobbled after non-Muslim teachers inn 2014 began refusing to work in the region following frequent attacks by Al Shabaab and its sympathizers on non-Muslims. A Wajir police official reportedly said Al Shabaab also set an Improvised Explosive Device on the route to the school, which detonated and hit a security vehicle responding to the attack. No one was injured.
Rebels from Al Shabaab, which is allied with Al Qaeda, have launched several attacks in northeast Kenya since Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in October 2011 in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenya’s coast. The Islamic extremist militants have also recently attacked in Kenya’s coastal area, killing four Christians on Sept. 6, 2017.
Kenya ranked 32nd on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Persecuted Iraqi Christians Offer Forgiveness to ISIS
Iraqi Christians have endured so much at the hands of Islamic extremists. Since the militants took control over much of the Middle East in 2014 Iraqi Christians have faced discrimination, been forced to pay fines, been driven from their homes, and in some cases have even faced death.
Nevertheless, they have chosen the path of forgiveness. "We forgive those who murdered us, who tortured us, who raped us, who sought to destroy everything about us. We forgive them in the name of Christ," said Iraqi Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil. "While it is true that our numbers are small, the Apostles were much smaller,” he added. So many Iraqi Christians have either been killed or displaced that leaders worry their communities will never be restored. "So few of us are left, some estimate 200,000 Christians or less," Warda said of the total number of Christians in the country, which The Christian Post reports is down from 1.5 million in 2003.
In the midst of this dire situation, there are small rays of hope, however. Last week, ChristianHeadlines.com reported on Christian ministry Open Doors’ effort to restore nearly 700 Iraqi Christian homes which were destroyed by ISIS. Iraqi Christians are a resilient people. Still, they will need help from the international community if they are to weather this storm. "It is critical time for the Christians of Iraq — 'to be or not to be.' The Christians of Iraq are facing their biggest and greatest challenge" in post-IS Iraq, stated Ashur Sargon Eskrya, president of the Assyrian Aid Society branch in Iraq.
Christian in Pakistan Arrested for 'Blasphemy' to Appease Islamist Throng, Sources Say
Hundreds of Christian families fled their homes in a village near Lahore, Pakistan yesterday after Muslim protestors called for the death of a young Christian accused of blasphemy, sources said.
Patras Masih, an 18-year-old resident of Dher village in Shahdara Town area of Lahore, was taken into police custody late Monday night (Feb. 19) after a day of protests led by the Muslim extremist Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) and other Islamist parties. The protestors threatened to burn down the homes of at least 700 poor Christian families, area residents said.
Several hundred protestors blocked a main highway, burned tires and chanted slogans calling for Masih’s death, they said. Telling police they would burn down Christians’ homes if Masih were not arrested, the protestors dispersed only after the local police chief assured them that the accused had been arrested and charged with blasphemy, sources said. The accused’s father, Indreyas Masih, told Morning Star News by phone from an undisclosed location that he was at his job as a driver with the Water and Sanitation Agency when he heard about the protests. “I was on duty when I received a phone call from my family that announcements are being made from mosque loudspeakers that my son Patras has committed blasphemy and should be punished for his crime,” he said. “I was shocked to hear this news and immediately asked my family members to leave the village.”
Indreyas Masih said he was unable to connect with other village Christians as most of them had turned off their phones and fled, fearing an attack by the protestors. “We handed Patras to the police late on Monday after a provincial Christian lawmaker, Tariq Gill, told us that the protestors won’t back down until we surrender my son,” he said, adding that he has not seen his son since.
Patras Masih was accused of posting a blasphemous image on a group Facebook page from his phone on Jan. 16, but his father said his son’s cell phone has been in a repair shop since December. His son told him that a friend had posted a sacrilegious photograph on a Facebook group from his ID a month ago, and that he had no intention of hurting religious sentiments, he said. Under Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws, intent must be shown for conviction. “My son is illiterate and works as sweeper at a private bank,” Masih said. “He has never been involved in any religious dispute with any Muslim in the village. I’m unable to understand why he has been trapped in this case.”
A member along with his family of Bethania Church, Masih said most of the Christian villagers had fled the area soon after the protests began. Police reported restoring calm by last night and urged residents to return home.
Accusation
According to the First Information Report (FIR No. 174/18) registered by Shahdara Town Police on a complaint by Hafiz Muhammad Awais under Section 295-C of the blasphemy statutes, Patras Masih allegedly posted a sacrilegious photo on a Facebook group called Paaglon Ki Basti, which is administered by Muslims.
Awais alleged that he learned of the photo from a friend, Muhammad Siddique. Awais told police he and Siddique telephoned Patras Masih and asked him to remove the objectionable post but that he refused, prompting the complainant to reach out to Muslim leaders.
Aneeqa Maria, an attorney at The Voice Society, told Morning Star News that the group will provide legal assistance to the family.
“The complainant has alleged in the FIR that Patras had uploaded the sacrilegious photograph from his mobile phone, whereas his father claims that the accused’s cell phone broke down two months ago and is still at the repair shop,” she said.
Maria said police had wrongly charged Patras under the harshest part of the blasphemy law, Section 295-C, which prohibits only derogatory remarks – spoken or written, directly or indirectly – defaming Muhammad the prophet of Islam. It carries a mandatory death penalty.
“Although it’s too early to comment on the case, I believe the police jumped the gun due to the pressure exerted by the religious parties and charged Patras under Section 295-C to placate the mobs,” she said.
Maria added that delay of over one month in the registration of the FIR also points to the complainant’s mala fide, “which the police has ignored.”
Superintendent of Police City Division Ali Raza declined to tell Morning Star News why Masih had been charged under Section 295-C for derogatory comments about Muhammad.
“The boy’s family helped us in arresting him, as they believe he has committed a grave mistake,’” he claimed, also asserting that Patras Masih had admitted to blasphemy.
“We have deployed some 400 police personnel in Dher village to protect the local Christian community,” he said. “The situation was brought under control late on Monday night when we informed the protest leaders that the accused boy has been arrested and charged with blasphemy.”
He said police had not asked Christians to leave the village.
“They should return to their homes now as the situation is under control,” Raza said. “I can assure all residents that the police will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands.”
On Sept. 14, 2017 a Christian father of two in Pakistan was sentenced to death for blaspheming Islam’s prophet in a phone text even though he is illiterate. Christian mother of five Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging in 2010 after an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water. Although international attorneys note that lower courts did not consider which of three statements attributed to her were “blasphemous” nor prove the intent to blaspheme necessary for conviction, the courts upheld her conviction. She is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on an appeal.
Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support group Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
Announcements were reportedly made from village mosques today calling on Christians to return to their homes, as the “blasphemer” had been arrested, and they need not fear reprisals from Muslims. Emmanuel Masih confirmed this information, telling Morning Star News that Muslim neighbors had assured them that no Christian would be hurt, because “they could not be blamed for the wrong done by an individual.” “I just hope that the issue settles soon, so that all Christians can return to their homes,” he said.
Israel transfers millions of dollars each year to the P.A in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports. If passed by the Knesset, the proposed legislation would enable Israel to either deduct the funds from the revenues or "freeze" the payments. "Soon, this theater of the absurd will come to an end, and the salaries of the terrorists that we will withhold from [Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud] Abbas will be used to prevent terrorism and compensate victims," said Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman about the proposed bill.
