Persecuted Christians – at home and abroad!

Church organisations gear up to combat international – and local – persecution

With churches being destroyed by mobs as far apart as Indonesia, India, Iraq, and Egypt, Iranian-born Massoud Fouroozandeh is only one of many suffering for his Christian faith. The difference is that he lives in Denmark and is leader of the Danish free church, Church of Love. He has hung a cross in his car window, and as a result his car, and its replacement, have been destroyed. Now he has moved with his family from Vollsmose, an Odense suburb with a large Muslim population. Other examples of anti-Christian hatred in Denmark include threatening phone calls to a Christian Iraqi family to convert to Islam, and a beating for an Albanian who wore a cross round his neck. Police figures show that in 2009 there were 21 cases of religious hatred as opposed to only 9 in 2008. However, Finn Schwarz of MT (the Jewish Community in Denmark) says that in 2010 there were at least 30 cases of violence, threats, and persecution of Jews alone in Denmark, making it the worst year in recent times.

Despite this, Pastor Torben Hangaard of Vollsmose Kirke says that these are isolated incidents carried out by mindless extremists. “In December we held a traditional ‘Santa Lucia-drama’ with children in our church. All but one of the children taking part were Muslims, and their parents came along and enjoyed the performance!” Similarly, Syrian-born Conservative member of the Danish parliament, Naser Khader, laments the fact that a few extreme Islamists are turning their attacks on their compatriots, especially those who have converted to Christianity. He adds the reminder, however, that persecution in the Muslim world also affects Jews, Bahais, and not least Ahmediya Muslims and secular Muslims. “In the eyes of extremists,” he says, “it is worse to be an apostate than to be born a non-Muslim.”

Various responses
In a letter to the Danish bishops a network of Danish Muslims and Jews for the support of persecuted Christians has expressed its “sorrow and anger at the recent attacks on Christian people and churches in various countries in the Middle East.”

And as a follow-up to Pope Benedict’s New Year Address expressing concern for persecuted Christians, Bishop of Lolland-Falster, Steen Skovsgaard, has invited the Catholic Bishop of Denmark, Czeslaw Kozon, to the annual Intercessory Prayer Service in Maribo Cathedral on 27th February. “We share a common concern for persecuted Christians,” Bishop Skovsgaard says, “and through the various media and the internet they are asking us not to forget them in our prayers.”

Helping the Christians in Iraq
There are thought to be about 400,000 Christian Iraqis remaining of the 1.5 million who once lived there. In Denmark one in four immigrants nowadays is a Christian Iraqi. To highlight the international persecution of Christians and other minorities in Iraq, Muslim and Christian leaders met in Copenhagen in January at the invitation of among others, the Copenhagen Diocesan Council for the Danish Lutheran Church and the Danish institute for Human Rights – with the support of the Foreign Ministry. The Muslim leaders issued a fatwa – a religious guide – against the persecution of Christian and other minorities. Among those responsible for the fatwa were two Iraqi Members of Parliament: Sheikh Majed Al Hafeed, imam, and Yonadam Kanna, leader of the Assyrian Democratic Movement.

Early in February a 6-man delegation which is engaged in an EU mission to highlight the plight of Iraqi Christians came to Denmark to seek help. Among them was another Member of the Iraqi parliament, Khalis Ayshoa Esttaifo, who is also chair of The Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Assembly. ”It is in particular the Christians and other minority groups who wish to build a democracy in Iraq,” he told the Christian Daily, “but we are being forced to leave our country. Europe can help Iraq, for example by rebuilding the Christian region and supporting the thousands of young people to continue their studies without fear of being shot.”

Khalis Ayshoa Esttaifo doubted the effect of the fatwa issued in Denmark: “Terrorists who kill have no sense of humanity; they won’t listen to a fatwa.”

 

Edward Broadbridge

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