Day: March 28, 2010

Communist China: Missing Chinese dissident lawyer Gao Zhisheng ‘alive’

— BBC reports: “Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, missing for more than a year after being detained by police, has spoken to Western journalists.”
— “‘I want to live a quiet life for a while,’ said Mr Gao by telephone.”
— “He said he was living near Wutai mountain, a Buddhist landmark in northern Shanxi province.”
— “He told Reuters news agency he had been released six months ago. He was abducted by police from a relative’s house in February 2009.”
— “Reuters said it had taken steps to verify Mr Gao’s identity.”
— “Another human rights lawyer said he had spoken to Mr Gao on Sunday.”
— “Gao Zhisheng, a self-taught lawyer, has not always been at odds with the people who run China. He was once a member of the Chinese Communist Party.”
— “In 2001 he was acclaimed as one of the 10 best lawyers in the country by a publication run by the Ministry of Justice.”
— “But he ran into trouble when he started to defend some of China’s most disadvantaged groups, such as supporters of the banned spiritual movement, Falun Gong.”
— “Mr Gao’s law practice was closed down in 2005. The government said one problem was that the lawyer had failed to tell officials of a change of address.”
— “The following year he was given a suspended prison sentence for “inciting subversion”.”
— “He has previously said he had been tortured while in detention.”

Set My People Free Human Rights Group Plans Easter Eve Protests in London, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Cairo, Stockholm and Sydney

Christian Post reports: “Human rights group seeks freedom for religious converts”
— “Set My People Free to Worship Me is planning to stage simultaneous marches on April 3 in London, Frankfurt, Melbourne, Cairo, Stockholm and Sydney.”
— “The group’s founder Kamal Fahmi said he was organising the protests to seek freedom, justice and equality for religious converts. The movement wants especially freedom for converts to worship, marry and raising their children according to their new faith.”

— Set My People Free To Worship Me Press Release and Contact Information

“Cairo, Egypt, March 1, 2010 Set My People Free to Worship Me, a new network of individuals, churches and organisations working for the freedom of religious converts to live and practice their faith, to experience equality and justice in their home countries, announced today plans for a worldwide protest march on Saturday (Easter Eve) April 3, 2010 at 12 noon in Australia, Africa, Middle East and Europe.”

“Founder and Leader, Kamal Fahmi said, Set My People Free to Worship Me is organizing a worldwide protest march seeking freedom, justice, equality and reconciliation for religious converts on April 3, 2010. We want to advocate that all people especially Muslims have the freedom to change faith, to live out and practice their new beliefs.”

“We are a non-violent movement that seeks freedom for religious conversion, religious worship, marriage and bringing up children. We believe that it is time to support our suffering Christian brothers and sisters from Muslim background and raise awareness of the injustices that they face, added Fahmi. In view of this, we have also started a petition campaign which all people regardless of faith, beliefs and practices are welcome to participate in. We hope to deliver it to various global leaders across the world. The online petition address is http://www.petitiononline.com/2010smpf/petition.html. We are very excited to see what God will do as we obey the biblical teaching – to release the oppressed.”

“Set My People Free To Worship Me plans to hold simultaneous protest marches in a number of cities around the world at 12.00pm (local time). The movement invites individuals, churches, religious bodies and NGOs to participate in these justice and peace marches in key cities in Cairo, Frankfurt, London, Melbourne, South Africa, Stockholm and Sydney. This will be a yearly event on Easter Eve until the situation changes.”

“Kamal Fahmi brings a strong background in non-governmental organization development. Fahmi has spent over 20 years working in the Middle East and Africa in Christian based organizations. He has also been involved in advocating on human rights issues throughout the years. Kamal draws inspiration from the involvement of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement who said In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

religious-freedom-matters

South Africa Report “White Farmers ‘Being Wiped Out'”

London Times reports:
— “White farmers ‘being wiped out’ – Over 3,000 have been killed since 1994. Now the ANC is accused of fanning the hate.”
— “Death has stalked South Africa’s white farmers for years. The number murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994 has passed 3,000.”
— “The vulnerability felt by South Africa’s 40,000 remaining white farmers intensified earlier this month when Julius Malema, head of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) youth league, opened a public rally by singing Dubula Ibhunu, or Shoot the Boer, an apartheid-era anthem, that was banned by the high court last week.”
— “Malema’s timing could hardly have been worse. Last weekend in the remote farming community of Colenso, in KwaZulu-Natal, Nigel Ralfe, 71, a dairy farmer, and his wife Lynette, 64, were gunned down as they milked their cows. He was critically injured; she died.”
— “That same day a 46-year-old Afrikaner was shot through his bedroom window as he slept at his farm near Potchefstroom. A few days later a 61-year-old was stabbed to death in his bed at a farm in Limpopo.”
— “The resurrection of Dubula Ibhunu, defended by senior ANC officials as little more then a sentimental old struggle song, has been greeted with alarm by Tom Stokes, of the opposition Democratic Alliance. He said the ANC’s continued association with the call to kill Boers could not be justified.”
— “‘Any argument by the ANC that this song is merely a preservation of struggle literature rings hollow in the face of farming families who have lost wives, mothers and grandmothers,’ he added.”