Good News in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (MNN) ― Christians across Azerbaijan live under the threat of government harassment. The country’s religion laws can be harsh, imposing severe penalties on violators. Many church leaders encounter legal problems and jail time.
Take, for example, the recent case of Pastor Hamid Shabanov, charged with allegedly holding an illegal weapon — an accusation strongly refuted by his congregation. Authorities transferred Shabanov from prison to house arrest shortly after a November 5th hearing at the Zakatala District Court in northwestern Azerbaijan. After multiple delays, Forum 18 indicates the trial is scheduled to resume November 17.
Shabanov’s difficulties are not unusual. The government forbids expatriate Christians to engage in what they call “religious propaganda,” and there are severe restrictions on distribution of literature for “nontraditional” religious groups. Read more
Egypt: Two Coptic boys, forced to live with father convert-to-Islam, vow hunger strike to the death if not allowed to return to mother
I was reading the October edition of the Arabic newspaper, Sawt al-Muhajir (“Voice of the Immigrant” Y9N62) which regularly reports the abuses non-Muslims, mostly Christians, suffer living in the Islamic world. I found an update to a story we had originally posted here. According to that report, an Egyptian Christian intentionally converted to Islam simply so he could divorce his wife and remarry another, presumably Muslim, woman.
The problem, however, is that, upon converting to Islam, and despite Article 20 of Egyptian law, “which grants custody of children to their mothers until the age of 15, and a fatwa (religious ruling) from Egypts most respected Islamic scholar, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, giving her custody,” the court granted the man custody of their two Coptic boys, Andrew and Mario. As the mother’s lawyer observed: This decision was dangerous because it was not taken in accordance with Egyptian law but according to sharia [Islamic] law.”
The update I read in the Arabic paper yesterday stated that, though the mother (Gaballah) has been fervently trying to seek help, international and otherwise, in getting back her sons, the Egyptian (rather, sharia) ruling still stands. More troubling still, the boys, who desperately want to return to their mother, have made a pact that, if the ruling is not turned, they will go on a starvation strike, to the death. View article…
