War on Christianity > Christian Pastor jailed for 8 years in China; 3 Christians killed, church destroyed in Nigeria; Illinois Masters Student restricted for being Christian

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Chinese court jails Christian pastor for 8 years:

‘Fraud for preaching the Gospel’

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Catholic worshipers attend a morning mass on Easter Sunday at a Catholic church in a village near Beijing on April 4, 2021. | JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images

A court in China’s Hubei province has sentenced a female Christian pastor to eight years in prison on charges of “fraud for preaching the Gospel” after her house church refused to join the state-controlled body that regulates Protestant churches, according to reports.

The Ezhou Echeng District People’s Court sentenced Pastor Hao Zhiwei of Egangqiao Church in Ezhou city to eight years in prison earlier this month, UCA News reported.

The 51-year-old pastor had been charged with fraud for preaching the Gospel and receiving donations from church members without approval from the state-run Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches and the Christian Council, her lawyer, Si Weijiang, was quoted as saying.

The lawyer added that Hao, who was arrested in July 2019, is the first pastor of a house church in the country who has been implicated in a fraud case, and added that she will appeal her sentencing, watchdog group Church in Chains said.

Hao’s church building had been demolished in August 2019 and was facing ongoing persecution, the group said, adding that after the pastor’s arrest, the authorities arrested several more house church pastors on the same charge, including Elder Zhang Chunlei of Guiyang Renai Reformed Church and Elders Hao Ming and Wu Jiannan of Deyang Early Rain Qingcaodi Church.

The Chinese Communist Party uses the new Regulation on Religious Affairs, which took effect in 2018, to persecute house churches in various ways, Elder Li Yingqiang of Chengdu Early Rain Covenant Church wrote in an article last November.

Those ways include "Sinicization," or seeking to align Christianity to China’s culture, religious and political ideology; “removing crosses, sealing up and demolishing church buildings; and banning church offerings.”

“Other charges include: ‘illegal business operations,’ ‘inciting subversion of state power,’ ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble,’ and so on. These charges are thorns on loyal preacher’s head and God’s crown for His loyal servants,” Li added.

Pastor Hao’s youngest son, Moses, who goes to a middle school, suffers from severe depression, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said.

“Her husband passed away a few years ago, and her oldest son started college in 2020, so he can no longer take care of his younger brother. Moses dropped out this semester and began locking himself in a room. He refuses to interact with people and only has one meal per day,” ICC said.

Pastor Hao’s health is deteriorating in prison and she has lost a significant amount of weight, the group added. “After being detained for more than two years, she has developed acute pancreatitis four times and was sent to the emergency room. She nearly lost her life.”

Hao has “strong faith that she can be released without charge.”

With Beijing hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics, many have expressed outrage about China’s treatment of religious minority communities. While China is being accused of genocide for its detainment of Uyghur and other ethnic Muslims in western China, human rights activists have voiced concern for years about the Chinese government’s yearslong crackdown on unregistered churches and house church movements.

Open Doors USA, a watchdog organization that monitors persecution in over 60 countries, warns that the monitoring of unregistered house churches in China increased over the last year as more house churches have experienced “harassment and obstruction once their activities have been discovered.”

Open Doors warns that many unregistered churches have been “forced to split up into small groups and gather in different locations, keeping a low-profile so as not to be detected by the sub-district officer or neighborhood committee.”

Ezhou city, Hebei

Islamic terrorists kill 3 Christians, destroy church in Nigeria

By Anugrah Kumar, 

Christian Post Contributor| 

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Suspected terrorists from the Islamic State West Africa Province have killed three Christians and destroyed a church in an attack in a village in northeast Nigeria’s Chibok area, according to reports.

The attack took place in the predominantly Christian village of Kautikari in Borno state on Friday evening in which three Christians were killed and the building of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was destroyed, Morning Star News reported Sunday, citing area residents.

Nigerian newspaper the Daily Post identified the deceased as Bulama Wadir, a traditional ruler’s son, and two internally displaced persons.

The Kautikari community, which lives on the fringes of Sambisa forest, a base of ISWAP terrorists, was also attacked in mid-January, when 24 Christian women and children were captured and taken into captivity, with 20 of them still held captive. The four others managed to escape in late January.

A worship auditorium of the local Church of the Brethren in Nigeria was also damaged in the January attack.

Kautikari village is near Chibok, where over 200 girls were kidnapped from a school in 2014.

Chibok leaders were quoted as saying that their communities have been attacked more than 72 times since the 2014 kidnappings. After eight years in which 57 girls escaped on their own and others were released, 110 of the girls remain in captivity, according to the Chibok Area Development Association.

In an earlier interview with The Christian Post, Emeka Umeagbalai of the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law said kidnappings of Christians happen for various reasons.

Boko Haram, ISWAP and radicalized members of the Fulani herding communities are motivated by money, while others are inspired by Islamic radicalism.

That doesn't make any sense!

Security analysts say kidnapping for ransom has become a lucrative industry in Nigeria as weapons are becoming available to militants in Nigeria thanks to war-torn Libya.

In Nigeria’s northeast, Boko Haram and ISWAP have killed thousands and displaced millions.

The U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern warns that the Nigerian government “continues to deny any religious motivation behind the attacks and has recently convinced the U.S. Department of State to do the same.”

The Nigerian President, Buhari, is a Muslim. I believe he not only doesn't want Islam blamed for the horror show in northern Nigeria, but I seriously doubt that he wants it to stop.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive as the government’s inaction in holding terrorists accountable for the rising number of murders and kidnappings.

However, last November, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the U.S. State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern,” a designation reserved for the countries that tolerate or engage in some of the world's worst violations of religious freedom. Nigeria was added to the CPC list in December 2020 during the final months of the Trump administration. ICC identified the African country as one of its 2021 “Persecutors of the Year.”

This deal was brokered by Anthony Blinken as a reward for supporting Biden's LGBTQ language at the UN. This is one of the most morally corrupt actions I can recall by a western government.

“Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, as 50,000 to 70,000 have been killed since 2000,” the ICC Persecutor of the Year report states.

According to Open Doors USA’s 2022 World Watch List report, at least 4,650 Christians were killed between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, up from 3,530 the previous reporting year, and more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, up from 990 the previous reporting year.

University Orders Christian Student Not to Talk to Students

Who Disagree with Her

Michael Foust |

ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | 

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

An Edwardsville, Illinois, university violated a Christian student’s constitutional rights by ordering her not to have contact with three students who disagreed with her faith-centric viewpoint, according to a legal organization.

Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter late last month to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville after it ordered Maggie DeJong, a student in the master’s in art therapy counseling program, from having “any contact” or “indirect communication” with three students. The students, according to ADF, complained to the university that her viewpoint would not be “welcome or appropriate.”

The university offered no basis for the orders, which “limit her speech and physical presence on and off campus” through the end of the semester, the letter says. Further, the letter says the university acknowledged DeJong’s conduct did not violate university policy. According to the letter, the university said the non-contact orders were to “prevent interactions that could be perceived by either party as unwelcome, retaliatory, intimidating, or harassing,” according to the letter.

“Universities, especially classrooms where topics are supposed to be vigorously debated, should be marketplaces of ideas, not an assembly line for one type of thinking,” said Tyson Langhofer, senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “Maggie has always respectfully expressed her viewpoint in class, which every student is entitled to do under the First Amendment. The university must immediately rescind the no-contact orders and revise its policies to adequately safeguard students’ constitutional rights.”

Langhofer told The Daily Citizen that DeJong’s Christian beliefs are the source of the dispute. At one point, Maggie informed a fellow student that “her personal beliefs are grounded in objective truth by the gospel of Jesus Christ,” according to The Daily Citizen.

The no-contact orders have prevented DeJong from “fully” participating in her educational activities, the letter says. Because of the orders, she cannot fully participate in classes with the three students. She also cannot participate in group chats in which any of the three students are present.

The orders violate DeJong’s free speech protections as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the letter says. The letter says legal action is possible if the university does not withdraw the orders.

Paris Teacher Fatally Stabbed in Throat by Former Student - a Pakistani Immigrant

© Google Maps

A teacher at Léonard-de-Vinci University near Paris has died, after being stabbed in the throat by a former student in front of the institution. The attacker is of Pakistani descent.

The victim, a 66-year-old English teacher, was stabbed in the throat in front of Léonard-de-Vinci University on Wednesday, Le Parisien reported. The suspect is a Pakistani male, 37, who had been expelled from the institution last year.

According to Le Parisien, the assailant had failed his 2017 school year and was not allowed to progress with his studies. He returned to the university around noon on Wednesday and took his revenge, stabbing his former teacher multiple times in the throat in broad daylight.

The teacher greeted his attacker moments before the violent stabbing, a student at the university told RT France. Other students at the scene tried to administer first aid to the dying teacher, but to no avail.

“The spate of school violence continues and worsens, [what] horror: the stabbing of a teacher in Courbevoie by a former Pakistani student calls for urgent measures. Support to his family and colleagues!” said David Rachline, mayor of the small French town of Fréjus.

Other French politicians focused on the attacker’s background, calling for tougher immigration laws.

"I demand they finally consider the link/connection between the rewildening of the country and anarchical immigration," read a tweet from Marseille Senator Stéphane Ravier, a member of Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally party."For how long will the French blood flow?"

Et pourquoi?

Léonard-de-Vinci university is located in Courbevoie, a suburb of Paris on the edge of the city’s business district.

Violence in the classroom is a growing problem in France. A viral video showing a student holding a replica gun to a teacher’s head in a suburban Paris high school shocked the nation in October, with President Emmanuel Macron declaring the incident “unacceptable” and calling for the Ministry of Education to investigate.

In another incident in Paris last month, a teenage student punched his teacher in the nose and “grabbed his neck to strangle him,” sending the teacher to the emergency room. The student was indicted for “aggravated violence,” and was expelled from the school.

As with the gun incident, the attack sparked a social media outcry, with French twitter users lamenting the declining quality of education in their country, and the fact that some school children “refuse to follow the rules.”

‘Skull Caved In’: Pakistani Journalism Student Beaten to Death for ‘Blasphemy’

No, Malala, Islam is not a religion of peace!

Screenshot of the beating © Dawn.com's video channel / YouTube

A Pakistani student has been beaten to death by a mob at his university campus, after he was accused of having blasphemous views. At least 10 people have been arrested, according to local authorities.

Mashal Khan was stripped naked and beaten by an angry mob of around 10 students shouting “Allahu Akbar” on Thursday, according to Reuters. He was beaten so brutally that his skull eventually caved in, according to video footage obtained by the media outlet.

"He was beaten with sticks, bricks and hands," senior police official Niaz Saeed told AFP, adding that hundreds of people – considerably more than the number arrested – were involved in the attack.

Sources from the university told local media that Khan was also stripped and shot, however this has not been confirmed by officials.

A video of the incident, which took place at a college campus in the northern city of Mardan, was also published online by local media outlet Dawn. However, its authenticity cannot be verified by RT.

Reuters reported that Khan was beaten after writing social media posts which were deemed blasphemous.

However, a source told AFP that the incident occurred not because of social media posts, but because Khan had gotten into a debate about religious views on Thursday. The argument reportedly became so heated that teachers had to lock Khan in a room for his safety.

"But the enraged students grew to a mob and they attacked the room," the source said.

Local police chief Mohammad Alam Shinwari said that the students wanted to burn Khan's body after killing him, according to Reuters. However, AFP cited university sources as saying he was instead thrown from the second floor of his student residency.

Shinwari said that 10 students have been arrested following the attack, although police told AFP that 11 students had been detained. Mardan District Police Officer Dr. Mian Saeed said that at least 45 people have been arrested, according to Dawn.

Saeed confirmed that authorities are investigating the details, but that they "cannot saying anything" about the motive at this time.

Blasphemy is an extremely serious accusation in Muslim-majority Pakistan, and at least 65 people have been murdered over such allegations since 1990. Insulting the Prophet Muhammad is punished as a capital crime, and hundreds are currently on death row for allegedly doing so. 

Just last month, the country's prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, issued an order for the removal of blasphemous content online, saying that anyone who posts such content should face "strict punishment under the law."

Meanwhile, Pakistani online activists believe blasphemy crackdowns on social media are attempts by the country's military to limit dissent on human rights violations.

Five online activists disappeared in January and were publicly accused of blasphemy while they were missing. Four of them have since reappeared, with at least one saying he was abducted and interrogated by Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

The country's government denied any part in the activists' disappearances.

Khan's death comes amid international calls to release Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death in 2010 for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad after an argument with a group of Muslim women. 

Those who stand up against alleged blasphemy are often hailed as heroes in Pakistan. In 2011, a bodyguard assassinated Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer after the politician called for blasphemy law reforms. The killer, who was put to death last year, has been dubbed a martyr to Islam by religious hard-liners, and a shrine has been erected at his grave.

This story is very much reminiscent of the brutal torture and murder of Farkhunda, a student of Islam who called out an Imam for selling charms. The Imam yelled out that she, Farkhunda, had burned a Quran and immediately a crowd formed and went hysterical. Farkhunda, who was a far better Muslim than the Imam or any of her torturers, was beaten, dragged through town behind a car, thrown into a revine, stoned, and set on fire. 

This is Islam. These are ordinary Muslims just as the students of Marden University are. This is not religion, it is madness! Europeans and Americans don't realize how incredibly violent these people can instantly become at the thought of someone blaspheming their pathetic religion. 

Yesterday, Canada bestowed Malala with honourary Canadian Citizenship; and honour I completely agree with. Malala is a hero and deserves every accolade she receives. But in a speech she condemned terrorists as not being part of her religion - a religion of which 1.5 billion people live in peace. The optimistic young woman is, unfortunately, misguided here.

Wikipedia claims there were 1.6 billion Muslims in 2010, which means there are probably close to 1.7 billion today. How many are living in peace? 

Well, if Pakistan was living in peace Malala could go home, but she hasn't returned to her native country for years because she knows she will be shot again if she does. Remember Benazir Bhutto? Pakistan has 182 million Muslims.

How many other Muslims live in peace?

India has more Muslims than Pakistan and a history of extreme violence between them and Hindus.

Nigeria has about 85 million Muslims and there is constant war and terrorism in the north against Christians.

Iran has about 80 million Muslims who are generally peaceful but who's leadership is involved in terrorism in Syria and Lebanon, and who are fighting proxy wars against Saudi Arabia in Syria and Yemen.

Turkey has about 80 million Muslims and there are frequent terrorist attacks, attempted coups, wars with Kurds, and others on their borders.

Iraq has about 33 million Muslims who have not known peace in 15 years and only knew peace before that (except for the Kurds) because of a despot that had people living in fear.

Shall we talk about Afghanistan, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, China, etc., etc? Is there any peace in any of those countries?

This little sample adds up to more than 800 million Muslims, close to half of all Muslims. Add to that the number of Muslims in Europe and elsewhere who are not peaceful - hundreds of Pakistani Muslims involved in raping and sex trafficking children in Britain, no-go zones throughout Europe where terrorists are protected and riots can break out instantly. Where are the peaceful Muslims? It's a myth! There is no peace in Islam!

disturbing video 0:45

Student Has Breakthrough In Capturing And Storing Sunshine

Brilliant breakthrough that could one-day change everything

The Sun is a huge source of energy. In just one hour planet Earth is hit by so much sunshine that humankind could cover its energy needs for an entire year if only we knew how to harvest and save it. But storing sunshine is not trivial. Now a student at Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen has researched his way to a breakthrough which may prove pivotal for technologies trying to capture the energy of the sun, and saving it for a rainy day.

Anders Bo Skov has recently started studying for his Master’s degree in chemistry at University of Copenhagen. Together with his supervisor, Mogens Brøndsted Nielsen, he is publishing the paper “Towards Solar Energy Storage in the Photochromic Dihydroazulene-Vinylheptafulvene System” in the journal “Chemistry – A European Journal“.

UCopenhagenProfessor Brøndsted is in charge of “Center for Exploitation of Solar Energy” at University of Copenhagen. Here his team is attempting to develop molecules capable of harvesting and holding substantial amounts of solar energy, storing it for significant amounts of time, and releasing it on demand.

Regrettably a year of research had shown them something that was taking on the shape of an irksome law of nature. As the capacity of the molecules to hold energy seemed to improve, the capacity to store it over time dropped; and vice versa.

The group is working with molecules known as the Dihydroazulene-Vinylheptafulvene system. Put very simply this stores energy by changing shape, but every time the Brøndsted group managed to design improved molecules, the molecules lost some of their ability to hold their “energy storage” shape, says professor Brøndsted.

“Regardless of what we did to prevent it, the molecules would change their shape back and release the stored energy after just an hour or two. Anders’ achievement was that he managed to double the energy density in a molecule that can hold its shape for a hundred years. Our only problem now is how we get it to release the energy again. The molecule does not seem to want to change its shape back again”, grins Mogens Brøndsted.

During his Bachelor studies Anders Bo Skov had four months to improve Brøndsted’s unstable molecule for his bachelor project. And he made it in the nick of time. Chemistry is a lot like baking. No bread is likely to come out of the oven if, for example, the flour disappears while the dough is proving. Using that analogy, Skov’s “bread” persisted in disappearing between his very hands. The molecules he was working with were that unstable.

“My chemical “recipe” demanded four synthesis steps in order to work. The first three were a piece of cake. I had them working in just a month. Getting the last step in order took me three months”, tells Skov.

Regardless of method, when you store energy there is a theoretical limit to the energy density… And then there is reality. In theory a kilogram of the right molecules could store a megajoule of energy if they were perfectly designed. With that amount of energy you can heat three liters of water from room temperature to boiling.

A kilo of Skov’s molecules can boil only 75 centiliters but it does that in just three minutes. This means that his molecules could bring to the boil 15 liters of water per hour and Skov as well as his supervisor are convinced that this is just the beginning.

“What Anders has achieved is an important breakthrough. Admittedly we do not have a good method to release the energy on demand and we should increase the energy density further still. But now we know which path to take in order to succeed”, says a visibly enthusiastic professor Mogens Brøndsted. Skov too is excited: Mostly because his molecules are sustainable on more levels than just the obvious one. Not only do they harvest sustainable solar energy. They are also completely non-toxic, he relates.

“When it comes to storing solar power our biggest competition comes from lithium ion batteries and lithium is a poisonous metal. My molecule releases neither CO2, nor any other chemical compounds while working. It is “Sunlight in-power out”. And when the molecule wears out one day it degrades to a colorant which is also found in chamomile flowers”, explains the Masters student.

Despite all the frustrations under ways, Skov has become so excited about his bachelor project that he has brought it with him into his Master’s programme. Normally Master students will start the programme by taking courses for a year, before turning to the research for their thesis. Skov on the other hand just stayed in the lab after his bachelor project. He is affiliated with the Center for Exploitation of Solar Energy in order to pursue his ideas for tweaking the sun-catcher molecule. Now he wants it to release the energy on demand. And the 25 year-old Masters student is brimming with ideas for the construction of such a compliant molecule.

University of Copenhagen

South African University Students Call for Apartheid Against Jews

Basically, South Africa has lived under apartheid for more than 200 years until the heroic Nelson Mandela paved the way for it to end in this very generation. One could argue that it goes back 350 years to when the Dutch colonizers brought in slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar and India.

Now, Mr Mandela's corpse is barely cold when a group of students from a prestigious technical university in South Africa began calling for another apartheid, this time against Jews. Mandela would be horrified at such a bigoted attitude.

Durban, South Africa

The student representative council at the Durban University of Technology in South Africa urged the institution’s management to expel its Jewish students, especially those who don’t support the Palestinian cause, the Daily News newspaper reported Wednesday.

The demand was also extended to any students sponsored by the Israeli government.

“We had a meeting and analyzed international politics,” the student body’s secretary, Mqondisi Duma, was quoted in the report as saying.

“We took the decision that Jewish students, especially those who do not support the Palestinian struggle, should deregister.”

Analyzing international politics from mainstream media will steer you wrong every time. Analyzing it through more thorough and honest sources will not cause you to become antisemitic; indeed, it will bring about the opposite result.

I suggest the student body re-examine the Israeli-Palestine issue from an unbiased attitude and without a predetermined outcome.

Durban University of Technology

Durban University of Technology vice chancellor Ahmed Bawa called the suggestion to kick out Jewish students “totally unacceptable.”

On Tuesday, Natan Pollack – the national chairman of the South African Union of Jewish Students – said the demand was “deplorable.”

“To discriminate against people because of their religious and political standpoint goes against freedom of speech,” he said.