Christmas proved to be a tough time for many Christians around the globe this past year, including believers in the following nations, who suffered attacks personally and affronts to their churches:
Iran
Christians arrested
A wave of arrests hit Iranian house churches during the Christmas season, leaving at least five Christian converts in detention across northern Iran, including the mother of an ailing 10-year-old girl.
Security officers with an arrest warrant from the Mashhad Revolutionary Court entered the home of Christian Hamideh Najafi in Mashhad on Dec. 16 and took her to an undisclosed location, according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN).
FCNN reported that on Dec. 30 the court sentenced her to three months of house arrest and ordered that her daughter, who suffers from a kidney condition, be placed under foster care. But because of the girl’s illness she was left in the custody of her parents — on the condition that they cease believing in Christ and stop speaking publicly of their faith.
During interrogation, officers had told Najafi to return to Islam and to disclose names of Christian evangelists. On some occasions the security officers summoned her husband, blindfolded him and threatened to beat him in front of his wife if she would not sign a confession that she was “mentally and psychologically unfit and disturbed,” FCNN reported.
On the grounds of this forced confession, her child was initially ordered to be taken from her.
There were no formal charges against Najafi, but she stands accused of contacting a foreign Christian television network, which court officials labeled as a “political” crime, according to FCNN.
Authorities also disrupted Christmas celebrations of two house groups in the Tehran area Dec. 21 and Dec. 29, leaving four in prison, according to Compass Direct News Service.
Indonesia
Massive mob protests service
More than 1,000 people protested the Christmas Eve service of a church meeting in a makeshift facility in Bekasi, West Java.
Christians of the “Filadelfia Huria Kristen Batak Protestan” Church (HKBP) fearfully held their service, including the Lord’s Supper, in spite of the disturbance. With the Dec. 24 service scheduled to start at 9 p.m., the mob had already gathered at 6 p.m., shouting demands that it not take place and that the church be disbanded because it did not have permits.
The church erected a tent and a semi-permanent structure for the service. The church does not yet have a permanent building, though the congregation has been trying to obtain permission for one for years, church leaders said.
The protestors claimed that the Christmas service could not be held at the site because a church building permit had not been issued.
Hundreds of police and soldiers were on hand to guard the 200 worshippers against the protestors. The service continued until the end, with police accompanying worshippers as they left.
Pastor Palti Panjaitan said the crowd blocked the street in front of the site in an area of up to 200 meters. “They blocked vehicles and people trying to get to the church,” the pastor said. “However, after negotiations, our congregation was able to pass and the service was held on time.”
Algeria
Christmas service blocked
Nearly 50 Muslim members of a community in northern Algeria blocked Christians from holding a Christmas service Dec. 26 to protest a new church building in their neighborhood.
As Algerian Christian converts gathered for their weekly meeting and Christmas celebration that morning, they were confronted by protestors barring the doors of their church building.
Tafat Church is located in Tizi-Ouzou, a city 62 miles east of Algiers, Algeria’s capital.
The residents were reportedly irritated at finding that a church building with many visitors from outside the area had opened near their houses, according to an El Watan newspaper report.
The daily paper highlighted that the residents feared their youth would be lured into the church with promises of money or cell phones.
“This land is the land of Islam! Go pray somewhere else,” some of the protestors said, according to El Watan. Protestors also reportedly threatened to kill the pastor, Mustafa Krireche.
One of Algeria’s Christian leaders, Youssef Ourahmane, said he could not recall another display of such outrage from Algerians against Christians.
“It was shocking, and it was the first time to my knowledge that this happened,” Ourahmane said. (CD)
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