IRAN Before Christmas, while Iran’s secret police were interrogating more than a dozen newly imprisoned Christian house fellowship leaders, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad wished Iran’s Christians a happy Christmas.
His message sounded like an attempt to seduce them into believing that Shiite Iran is more Christ-honouring than the ‘oppressive powers’ in ‘Christian states’ which have created havoc in Iraq and ruined Iran’s Christmas by levelling sanctions against it.
It is reasonable to infer that Ahmadinejad means to seduce the
official church of ethnic Armenian and Assyrian Christians into becoming compliant – even grateful – collaborators in exchange for limited ‘privileges’. Ahmadinejad could then appear supportive of the church and religious liberty in general.
And Ahmadinejad needs friends. Iranian women, students, intelligentsia and trade unionists are all becoming increasingly courageous in their
protest against the regime’s repression and belligerence.
Thus, Ahmadinejad’s seductive efforts will present the official church with a painful, watershed choice: collaborate or share the persecution.
However, the reality is that Christians who actively evangelise are persecuted. Persecution escalated dramatically through 2006 under Ahmadinejad’s direction, and it is expected to escalate in 2007. Reportedly, new government directives will soon place the church even more under the thumb of the intelligence ministry and security forces.
Pray that God will give Iran’s Armenian and Assyrian Christians great spiritual discernment and wisdom, as well as moral clarity and courage so that they will not be deceived, seduced or tempted. Pray they will trust God completely.
Pray for Christians who are imprisoned, that God will comfort, protect and deliver them.
Pray for God continuous protection on all Iran’s evangelists – from the trained Bible scholar and career missionary to the humble children sharing their simple faith with friends – so that the gospel of salvation through the biblical Jesus can spread across the nation.
THAILAND The civil strife in southern Thailand has great repercussions for, not just Malaysia but, the region. Islamic separatists staged at least 49 bombings, shootings and arson attacks during the Chinese New Year period in southern Thailand, killing at least nine and wounding 44.
Suspected Islamic separatists burned down Thailand’s biggest rubber warehouse located in Yala. The CNY weekend attacks in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces were the biggest show of force by Islamic separatists in the south since the military seized power in a coup last September.
Some 2,000 people have been killed in three years of unrest (The Star, Feb 21). Analysts and officials said the Thai army has become so preoccupied with politics that it is neglecting the problem in the south.
Muslims are terrified to come forward to present information because they fear retribution from a militant movement which treats suspected informants with severe brutality.
Pray for the leaders of the country – especially Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, the nation’s first Muslim to head the army – to take firm and wise action to arrest the escalating violence in the region. Pray for success for the army and police personnel in nabbing those responsible for inciting hatred and division, and causing the deaths of many innocent civilians.
BURMA The military government has again asked for lists of all the names of Christian children’s homes, assemblies, church pastors, leaders, members and families. It has also fixed the time for worship which forbids Christians to meet outside these “official” times.
Christian leaders do not know what the government is going to do with the lists. Pray God gives Christians in Burma peace, wisdom and boldness during this time. Pray for their protection and that their lives will reflect their trust in God, so that many non-believers will be drawn into the the saving knowledge of Christ.
KOSOVO The (Muslim) Ottoman Empire occupied the Balkans during the 14th Century. The Christians they subjugated won back their
freedom through the 1912–13 Balkan Wars. During the Ottoman era, large numbers of ethnic Albanian Muslims (now called Kosovars) moved into Serbia’s southern regions, now known as Kosovo. These Kosovars then rebelled against the resulting Serb rule, protesting that ‘their’ land was ‘occupied’.
This Kosovar separatist cause accelerated from 1941, through the WW2 Nazi-Muslim alliance and the subsequent pro-Albanian, pro-Arab, anti-Serb Communist dictatorship. The Kosovar vs Serbia struggle for Kosovo escalated through the 1990s, erupting into war in 1999. On Feb 2, the UN’s special envoy proposed that Kosovo basically be ceded from Serbia to the Kosovars. Ethnic and religious tensions in Kosovo are
likely to explode.
Pray for justice and for God to protect the small Orthodox Serb remnant in Kosovo, and for wisdom and divine guidance for the country’s political and religious leaders.
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