Magic Statistics

Almost 200 Christians are on a hunger strike in Belarus to protest anti-religious government policies and actions.

On 31 October 2002, Belarus' dictator President Alexandr Lukashenka put his signature of approval to Europe's most repressive religion law. Belarus' law "About Freedom of Faith and Religious Organisation", which has been compared to Stalin's 1929 decree on religious associations, became law on 16 November 2002.

Belarus' religion law makes it virtually impossible for Protestant fellowships to obtain registration. What's more, in order for a denomination to obtain registration as a legal entity, it must have at least 10 separate registered groups, of which one must have existed in 1982 – that is, at the height of Soviet repression. If the denomination cannot achieve registration then it cannot train clergy or invite foreigners to come work as staff, nor can it run schools or media.

In the Belarus capital, one Protestant church's battle with the authorities for their right to worship the LORD is coming to a dreadful climax. The more than 1,000-member strong New Life church in Minsk has been denied registration and obstructed at every turn as it has tried to rent a meeting place. The church purchased a property in 2002 but has faced constant obstruction and harassment as it has renovated and met for worship.

The City of Minsk has ordered the church destroyed.  On 6 October, when the bulldozers arrived, seventeen New Life members moved into the church and began a hunger strike.  Since then, the hunger strike has grown to 180 participants and Christians are holding prayer services throughout the country.

The authorities may yet decide to occupy the building by force.  Please pray for a quick resolution that will allow Christians to worship in peace.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is one of Hugo Chavez’s buddies.  No surprise there.

h/t: Thinking Christian

Every year in Egypt, hundreds of Christian girls disappear.  They are presumed to have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men.  Families do not bother to report most instances because anti-Christian animus is rampant among police and other authorities.

The September issue of El Tareek, Egypt’s only Christian newspaper, contains a lengthy article reporting on investigations into many such disappearances.  A translation is posted at The Last Harvest.

The latest case is that of Mona Yacoub Kriakas, a 23-year-old teacher who disappeared days before she was to be married, apparently while shopping in preparation for her wedding.  The family’s lawyer lodged a complaint with the police, naming the man suspected of the crime.  When the police brought the man in, he produced a marriage contract.  The family contested the validity of the contract in court because it appeared forged.  Also, she had previously signed an engagement contract with her fiancé.

The court ordered the accused man to appear to respond to the charge of kidnapping.  He has not done so, the court’s order has not been enforced, and the authorities have refused to arrange a meeting between the family and the daughter.

Dozens more cases are listed in the full article.

h/t: Persecuted Church Weblog, where contact information for the Egyptian Embassy in Ottawa is posted, so you can voice your concern to the Egyptian Ambassador to Canada.

In reporting today’s announcement that the genome of the honey bee has been mapped, Reuters has written one of the most hilarious items I’ve ever seen.  Here’s some of what they had to say.

With its highly evolved social structure of tens of thousands of worker bees commanded by Queen Elizabeth, the honey bee genome could also improve the search for genes linked to social behavior.
. . .
Queen Elizabeth has 10 times the lifespan of workers and lays up to 2,000 eggs a day. Despite having tiny brains, honey bees display honed cognitive abilities and learn to associate a flower's color, shape and scent with food, which increases its foraging ability.

One would expect that Reuters will, sooner or later, correct the text of the story, so here’s a screen shot.  (Click for larger view.)

The story has been up all day and, as of the time of this posting, Reuters apparently still hasn’t noticed its error.

Click here for an accurate account of the story.  (Not nearly as interesting as the Reuters version.)

h/t: Shane Richmond at the London Telegraph

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is pleased that Britain is having a public debate about the wearing of veils by Muslim women.  He thinks that the British may soon agree with the policy that France adopted years ago.

Villepin recalled that France was widely criticised in Britain two years ago when it banned the Muslim headscarf and other religious garb from its state schools as an unacceptable intrusion of faith into the public sphere.

The debate in Britain is about limiting the full facial veil, or niqab, and not the headscarf. But Villepin saw a parallel in the way both societies were setting standards to which immigrant communities would have to conform.

"I'm glad to see France's secular demands are now being discussed seriously abroad," Villepin said at his monthly news conference.

"British personalities often lectured me about this, (asking) why a country should pass a secular law about religious garb at school," he said.

"I'm glad to see they're now asking themselves the questions we've been asking ourselves for quite a long time. Being a country means respecting rules, and especially respecting authority. It means respecting principles and values, and that's France's strength."

France has long insisted that its immigrants conform to French ways while Britain has traditionally followed a more flexible multicultural policy.

So, Dominique, how’s France doing with those policies of insisting immigrants conform to French ways and respect government authority?

• A year later, the banlieue still boils
• Police preparing for replay of Paris Muslim riots
• Fears of repeat Paris riots as buses burn

Never mind.

h/t for Yahoo! Asia News: Big News Network.com Breaking Religious News

Previous related posts:

• Jack Straw is right about the veil, says daughter of Kashmiri immigrants
• Islamists jailed for plotting to bomb Paris
• Barbarians at the gates of Paris

Nadia Eweida, the British Airways employee suspended for wearing a small cross, has been told she can return to work, but only if she remains out of public view.

A British Airways employee who was banned from wearing a cross round her neck has been told she can return to work if she agrees to take a backroom job.

The airline wrote to Nadia Eweida, 55, a Heathrow check-in worker, telling her she would not be allowed to resume her duties in the terminal if she continued to wear the religious symbol.

Miss Eweida and British Airways became locked in a row over her crucifix last month after she refused to remove it on the grounds that it breached the airline's uniform policy.

The offer was not well-received.

Miss Eweida, who has been on unpaid leave for a month, attacked the offer as "morally degrading".

"This is unfair. They are telling me to be out of sight," she said.

"It is as if the cross is taboo. If I go back to work, I will be wearing my cross for everyone to see. I will not resign. They will have to sack me."

The airline allows Muslims and Sikhs to wear headscarves and turbans to work, but Miss Eweida is expected to cover up her cross or remove it.  BA has also threatened to discipline her for bringing the dispute to the attention of the public.

Miss Eweida has the support for her local MP, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Vince Cable.  Also, former Home Secretary Anne Widdicombe has called for a boycott of BA.

Previous related post: Another sign of the end?