World in Brief

New South Wales (NSW) will once again be subjected to an attempt to legalise euthanasia, it was reported in May.

Catherine Faehrmann MP (Greens NSW Party) in late April announced her intention to submit legislation titled Rights of the Terminally Ill Bill 2013 for NSW’s Upper House to discuss. Previous such attempts in NSW have been defeated by a wide range of cross-party opposition.

Gong Shengliang, imprisoned since 2001 for his leadership of the South China Church movement, is suffering from lack of medical treatment after a stroke, according to his daughter.

In an April 23 open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Gong Huali stated that her father suffered a ‘cerebral infarction’ (ischemic stroke) late last year which has rendered him unable to walk or speak. ‘Because [of] the complete absence of minimal medical care, his cerebral and cerebellum functions have been severely affected … His life is in serious danger.’ She has asked for him to be released on bail for urgent medical treatment.

A Green Paper, adopted by the European Commission on April 24, invites stakeholders and the public to share their views by the end of August 2013 on issues raised as a result of converging audio-visual technology and content.

There are now more than 40.4 million ‘connected TVs’ in Europe and by 2016 they will be in the majority of EU households. This is changing the boundaries between consumers, broadcast media and the internet. The Commission will look at protecting media freedom as well as user interests, standards, competition, openness and media pluralism.

Michael Kofi Bansah, Director General of Ghana Prison Service, has allowed the Alpha Courseto be used in all 43 prisons in the country and instructed all chaplains to attend Alpha, along with volunteer churches, it was reported in May.

309 officers and 559 inmates have attended Alpha. Bansah said: ‘We cannot afford to miss such an opportunity to bring to faith our unfortunate brothers and sisters in our custody, as part of fulfilling our mandate of reformation and rehabilitation. What the law has failed to do, faith in Christ Jesus can restore’.

A Hindu nationalist party, which supports extremist groups that attack and harass Christians, lost control of Karnataka state in May.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been at the helm of the southern state since 2008, but saw its share of the vote slashed by 13.9% in the election on May 5. It suffered a net loss of 72 seats, while the country’s governing Congress party gained a majority with an increase of 42 seats. The BJP’s vote was split by two breakaway parties, which indicates enduring support for some of its values. The result is nevertheless good news for the state’s beleaguered Christians.

The Islamic Republic’s hatred towards Christians has grown to the point that

they cannot even tolerate historical buildings related to Christians and Christianity, it was reported in May.

They use every opportunity to destroy Christian historical buildings/monuments, regardless of their cultural and historical value and the role they played in Iranian history. An example is the destruction of a stone carved image of Cyrus the Great, king of the Persian Empire, at the entrance of Persepolis.

Three Christian converts were arrested in Esfahan on May 29.

The Christians were members of a house church in Esfahan and had gathered at Hamid-Reza Ghadiri’s house for worship. They were immediately transferred to an unknown location. Mohammad-Reza Farid and Saeed Safi are Afghan Christians and were also administrators of a Christian blog known as Nejat-e-Ma (Our Salvation). Their blog was blocked by Iranian cyber police before their arrest.

A Protestant pastor in the capital Astana, Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev, was arrested on criminal charges of harming health on May 17, and on May 19 was ordered to be held for two months’ pre-trial detention on unclear charges, apparently including praying and singing.

Meanwhile, Baptist leader Aleksei Asetov was jailed for three days in early May for refusing to pay a fine equivalent to a year and a half’s average local wages. The fine was imposed for meeting for worship without state permission.

In May, it was reported that Bible Society staff and volunteers across the Middle East and North Africa say that opportunities to share the Bible are closing down because the work is becoming more dangerous.

A 24-hour curfew was imposed in Wukari, Taraba State, to prevent the escalation of violence on May 3 between Christians and Muslims that left at least 39 people dead and 30 injured.

The bloody clash between the majority Christian Jukun community and the minority Fulani Muslims occurred during a burial procession for a traditional leader from the Jukun tribe. The Jukuns are the ancestral people and majority inhabitants of Wukari and other parts of Taraba State. Many are Christians, a much smaller minority are animists and a few are Muslims. The mainly nomadic Fulani, predominantly Muslims, migrated to Wukari over the years.

In 2012, 70% of Christians murdered due to persecution were killed in Nigeria —this is characterised by the brutal murder of a pastor in May.

On May 15, after finishing his evening Bible study at his church in Borno state’s capital Maiduguri, the Rev. Faye Pama, the secretary of the Borno state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), went home. Suspected Boko Haram militants followed him home, broke in, dragged him out and shot him. Pama was probably targeted because of his outspoken criticism of Boko Haram. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Tensions were high in Punjab Province’s Okara district after provincial assembly seat candidate Mehr Abdul Sattar on May 13 arranged for mosque calls for violence against Christian villages, whom he blamed for his May 11 election loss.

Police sought Sattar in connection with the murder of Javed Masih, a Christian who had opposed Sattar in a 2008 general election.

Family Life Network’s new book Komm Kjikje, vol. II, written in Low German by Helen Funk and featuring stories from the New Testament, was distributed in Paraguay in May and will be distributed in Belize in July.

Originally produced as animated radio programmes, FLN hopes these stories will introduce Jesus to a new generation of children in Low German-speaking communities in Latin America.

From January 2013 to early June, Sri Lanka saw 30 incidents of persecution against Christian churches.

The perpetrators of such acts were not brought to justice, which encourages the culprits to continue carrying out such violent attacks without regard for the law. In a press release dated April 3, the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) expressed its deep concern over the ‘prevalence … of an organised campaign of hatred against adherents of non-majority faiths’. According to an attorney who works on behalf of persecuted believers: ‘In the south of Sri Lanka alone, more than ten churches have been forced to close down’.

A British man suffering from dementia committed suicide at a Dignitas clinic, it was reported at the end of May.

The unnamed 83-year-old man was helped in the process by an ex-GP known as Dr. Death. The Briton is believed to be the first to die at Dignitas solely because of dementia, which is a neurodegenerative disease but not a terminal illness.

Thai is the latest language to be added to the Jesus.net movement, working in local partnership with OMF, it was reported in May.

Jesus.net is working on establishing a more consistent look to its websites across all the languages.

Kanal Hayat, an IBRA-sponsored Christian Satellite TV channel broadcasting in Turkish, celebrated its sixth anniversary in March.

Broadcasts began in March 2007 with 1,744 viewers. In 2012 there were 13,406 viewers, plus 198,629 programmes downloaded from YouTube.

Two members of a Protestant community in a village in the eastern Lebap region were fined more than two months’ average local wages after police were informed that a church member was reading Christian literature at work, it was reported in May.

State religious affairs officials and police raided several local Christians’ homes, confiscating Bibles and other literature.

Following the Boy Scouts’ May 23 vote to lift its ban on openly homosexual members, a number of churches across America have announced that they will be cutting ties with the organisation.

The majority of entities that charter with the Boy Scouts are either faith-based organisations or churches. Some churches have decided not to allow the Scouts to use their facilities any more as the organisation no longer represents their moral values.

The US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2012 (released in May) shows persecution against Christians and Jews is on the rise, especially in Muslim countries.

Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia are among the many countries where non-Muslims are suffering persecution. Saudi Arabia prohibits any religion except Islam and enforces state restrictions on religious freedom. The report also devotes a section to the ongoing global increase in anti-Semitism, citing Venezuela, Egypt and Iran as countries with political and religious leaders who openly espouse Holocaust denial and anti-Israel rhetoric.