Uzbekistan: restrictions remain in new law
27 Aug 2020
The draft religion law now in parliament would, in defiance of human rights, continue to ban all exercise of freedom of religion without state permission, banning teaching about religion without state permission, continuation of compulsory censorship of all religious materials and to ban sharing of faith. ‘There's not much difference between the draft law and the current one’, commented human rights defender Bahodyr Eliboyev. Although the draft reduces the number of adult citizens required to apply for a community to be allowed to exist from 100 to 50, it would retain the registration process and most of the restrictions. ‘The state must not be afraid of giving full religious freedoms,’ insists Abduvohid Yakubov, an independent rights defender from Tashkent who is also critical of the draft law.
Two Protestant families who were forced to sign an illegal agreement to renounce their right to hold religious services in order to have their access to essential services reinstated have now been told they risk being cut off again if they cannot pay the remainder of a fine that was levied as part of the agreement. In 2019 they refused to sign a similar document renouncing their faith when other Protestants in the village signed it. Their refusal to do so caused their access to water, drainage, government benefit programmes and the community mill cut off for over a year until they signed it. They were also threatened with forced displacement by community leaders unless they contributed to local Roman Catholic festivals and participated in other activities which conflicted with their religious beliefs.
China: ‘brave new world’
27 Aug 2020
The Chinese government is obtaining blood samples from up to 70 million – 10% of all men and boys – as the high-tech surveillance state builds a ‘DNA Skynet’ of the country’s 700 million males. Any individual who refuses to give blood samples risks his family being barred from benefits such as travel, fast internet connection and hospital treatment. The powerful genetic mapping tool, which is being compiled from samples collected since 2017, will join up with China’s existing countrywide video-surveillance network. The system will be capable of tracking every male relative of any individual man just from a sample of his genetic material, such as skin or hair. Only 5-10% of the male population needs to be sampled in order to build a complete genetic map, because one sample unlocks the identity of all related males.
Iraq: assassinations in Basra
27 Aug 2020
Dozens of activists have been killed in Iraq in recent years. In under a week, two have been assassinated and three narrowly survived murder attempts, as tensions between pro-Iran groups and a Western-leaning government claim new victims. Riham, an athletics coach who was deeply involved in anti-government protests, was shot dead in Basra on 26 August; five days earlier activist Tahsin died after being shot two dozen times. The targeted killings sent shivers down spines in Iraq’s civil society, already deeply disturbed by the killing in Baghdad of Al-Hashemi, a government adviser and widely respected historian. ‘The government and security forces have done nothing.’ said Ammar Al-Hilfi, a prominent Basra activist. In July a senior Iraqi official said the government suspected ‘possible assassinations’ as a reaction to a policy of extending state control.
USA: California fires update
27 Aug 2020
Firefighters battling historic blazes in Northern California made progress towards getting the massive fires under control after temperatures cooled in the region. Lightning strikes, many of which sparked the fires, have decreased, and fire officials said they have had successes battling three blazes burning around the San Francisco Bay area as they prepare for a ‘marathon’ in the coming weeks to suppress the rest of the wildfires.
Faith rises from the rubble
20 Aug 2020
The nations have been devastated to see the destruction in Beirut, but also inspired by the response of the help and support from church, communities, charities and media broadcasts from SAT-7. Presenter Marianne Awaraji Daou said, ‘Thank you for your prayers and support. We feel the unity of the body of Christ during these hard times, and this lifts us and blesses our hearts.’ One survivor speaking on a SAT-7 programme said, ‘The Lord is merciful and compassionate. Jesus protected me, my family, and the people I love. I thank Him every moment. I want to say that evil is increasing, but I believe that the Lord will use everyone who went through this disaster to be His witness. I believe that God works through our prayers and through those who help. My hope is in You, Lord.’
Delivery man calls pastor
20 Aug 2020
Jim answered the phone, ‘Hello’. The caller responded, ‘Are you a pastor?’ ‘Yes, can I help you?’ ‘My name is Jacob, we delivered an appliance to your home and you shared about missions. I was interested in going on a short-term mission.’ Jim said, ‘Yes, I remember you.’ ‘We wanted to go to the Philippines but the virus shut down the mission trip. My wife flew to Ohio to visit family and was killed in an accident. I had her phone that day and I placed your number in it, my pastor told me to call everyone that she had talked to.’ ‘I was overwhelmed, I said to Jacob, ‘Let’s pray’.People are hurting everywhere and we have the answer, Jesus Christ. So the question is, will we share our faith more aggressively? This is what we need to do during this virus fear. Be bold, pray and speak up to everyone, now is the time.’
Buy British
20 Aug 2020
The National Farmers Union (NFU) says Britons would run out of food in five days if the nation was solely reliant on home-grown produce. New research shows the proportion of the food that we consume that is produced in the UK has plummeted from 80% per cent in 1980 to just 64% now. Experts say the alarming statistics should be a wake-up call for the Government to prioritise food supply and for the public to buy more British produce. City University's Centre for Food Policy said that a country with low self-sufficiency is at risk of negative geopolitics and we are in exactly that sort of uncertainty now. The world is facing extreme pressures from people, food, climate and landmass. Britain is still acting as though we have an empire. It doesn't and Britain is assuming others will feed us.' NFU research states that Britain now imports 93% of its fruit and 47% of its vegetables.