Italy: Roma people
21 Jun 2018In a dusty Roma camp, life goes on despite threats of an ethnically-targeted census and deportation by Italy's new hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini, who recently refused to take in a rescue ship carrying 630 migrants. He intends to throw out Roma people without legal status. His call was blasted as ‘unconstitutional’ by rights groups and criticised by members of his own government. Some are drawing parallels with measures targeting Jews under fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini. ‘If Salvini comes here, we will welcome him with kindness. He needs to see how we live’, says Habibi Mehmedi, a teenager in a camp outside Rome's main ring-road - away from the eyes of the office workers and tourists. ‘Some do bad things, but most of us are Italian and have not committed any crimes.’ Despite the Roma community making up at most 0.3% of Italy's population, they are subject to extreme hostility from the general public. The Joshua Project states that the Italian Roma people’s primary religion is Christianity.
Globally: remember those in prison
21 Jun 2018Citizens are not usually incarcerated for their beliefs or peaceful activity in the West. Elsewhere Christian prisoners of conscience are threatened, not merely by criminals, but by an environment of unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases, untreated illness and extreme tortures at the hands of the authorities. These human rights abuses are enabled by a worldview that diminishes and even negates the Christian's value as a human being. Thousands of Christians are in prison for their faith, while others are held captive by jihadists. Pray for human rights lawyers like Gao Zhisheng (China), humble labourers like Aasia Bibi (Pakistan) and foreign nationals like Andrew Brunson (an American pastor in Turkey), Sister Gloria Narvaez (a missionary in Mali), and Dr Ken Elliot (an Australian missionary doctor in Burkina Faso). Pray for all prisoners and captives suffering physically, emotionally, and spiritually, exhausted and confused. Pray for those heartbroken by separation from family and friends.
Hawaii and Guatemala: volcanoes
21 Jun 2018Hawaii's Kilauea volcano is in its 48th day, wreaking havoc with thousands of varying magnitude earthquakes and a lava flow destroying property on its way to the ocean. Guatemala’s Fuego volcano eruptions, which began on 3 June, are different but no less deadly, occasionally shutting the international airport due to ash. Violent eruptions from another peak recently killed over 110 people. Eruptions have left dense volcanic mud covering villages with rescue attempts having to halt every so often due to the unstable environment. At the time of writing 200 people remain missing in Guatemala; 12,000 are displaced, and being supported by NGOs with food, water and relief items. Pray for those helping to restore family links and for those giving psychosocial support. Donald Trump approved a request for federal aid to assist the thousands left homeless after 600+ homes were destroyed by Hawaii’s lava.
Algeria: Christian persecution
21 Jun 2018Algerian Christians cannot openly practise their faith. 99% of the population are Muslim, and intolerance from Muslim relatives and neighbours is a major source of persecution. The state restricts freedom of religion through stringent laws and bureaucracy. Many ethnic Berbers are coming to Christ and Arabs are persecuting them. Laws regulate non-Muslim worship, ban conversion, and prohibit blasphemy. In recent years, several Christian churches with Muslim-background congregations have been ordered to close. Slimane Bouhafs, imprisoned for insulting Islam, was violently harassed by fellow prisoners for his faith. On 16 May a judge denied Pastor Nouredine Belabed's appeal against a sentence of a 100,000-dinar fine and payment of court fees plus a suspended sentence. Pray for the young people, who make up a large percentage of the population as well as the majority of Christians.
On 10 June Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed two Christians and seriously wounded another in central Nigeria. Ibrahim Weyi, 45, and Larry More, 53, were hacked to death when herdsmen ambushed them as they were going home on a motorcycle from an evening worship service. A third Christian, 23-year-old Samuel Weyi, was wounded and is in intensive care. Lawrence Zango said, ‘Fulani herdsmen have continued to kill innocent Christians in our villages, yet the Nigerian government has not taken proactive measures to end the onslaught.’ President Muhammadu Buhari is also a Fulani Muslim. A spokesman for the Plateau State Command said an investigation is under way. Herdsmen attacks on Christian communities in the Bassa area intensified late last year and have continued in spite of the presence of military personnel. Victims are either ambushed and killed or attacked in their homes at night.
USA: human rights and Mexico border
21 Jun 2018In May, Amnesty International said the US government must stop separating asylum-seeking parents from their children and denying them access to asylum procedures through prolonged detention when they present themselves at the US-Mexico border. On 20 June Donald Trump ended this policy, following days of public outrage. Many asylum-seekers are fleeing violent countries which abuse human rights (such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala). They usually cross Mexico in caravans, as travelling in a group is safer in dangerous places. Although Trump seeks to brand them as criminals, it is not a crime to seek asylum at official border posts. Recently members of a caravan and their representatives marched through the streets of Tijuana to the border crossing point saying, ‘We are not criminals, we are the hope of Latin America’.
Gaza: terrorists blow themselves up
21 Jun 2018In order to thwart attempts by terrorists to tunnel from Gaza into Israel, the Israeli government has an underground wall along the border. On 18 June, Gaza terrorists blew themselves up trying to destroy the underground barrier. The incident occurred after an escalation of rocket fire and firebomb-laden kites and balloons sent from Gaza into southern Israel. Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that Israel would not allow Gazans to continue launching incendiary devices into Israeli territory, which have caused hundreds of brush fires and burned thousands of acres of land. ‘If anyone thinks it will be possible to continue with the daily kites and fires, they are wrong,’ Lieberman said. Meanwhile housing minister Yoav Galant said, ‘When an eight-year-old boy flies a kite strapped with a firebomb because someone told him to, it is problematic to send a drone to shoot him dead.’
North Korea: betrayal
21 Jun 2018North Koreans were betrayed by the failure of US president Donald Trump to include human rights provisions in his agreement with Kim Jong-un at their meeting in Singapore, according to Human Rights Watch. Trump told the BBC World Service, ‘The North Korean people have suffered for so long - and it looks like they’ll have to suffer for a little longer.’ Responding to a question about whether North Korea’s oppression of its people was worse than any other regime on earth, he said, ‘It’s a rough situation over there; there’s no question about it, and we did discuss it today pretty strongly.’ Elsewhere, when asked if he discussed human rights, he said they did, ‘relatively briefly.’ See