Islamic principles govern Somali region in southern part of country.

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 29 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian in Ethiopia’s southern town of Moyale who languished in jail for more than three months after he was accused of desecrating the Quran has been sentenced to three years of prison, church leaders said.

Tamirat Woldegorgis, a member of the Full Gospel Church in his early 30s, was arrested in early August after a Muslim co-worker in the clothes-making business the two operated out of a rented home discovered Woldegorgis had inscribed “Jesus is Lord” on some cloth, area Christians said. His business partner later accused him of writing “Jesus is Lord” in a copy of the Quran, although no evidence of that ever surfaced.

Woldegorgis was sentenced on Nov. 18 for allegedly defacing the Quran and was subsequently transferred to Jijiga prison, a source said. Jijiga is the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Region Zone Five, which is governed by Islamic principles, and his transfer there – after a period in which his whereabouts were unknown – puts his life in greater danger, a church leader said.

In Ethiopia’s federal state system, each state is autonomous in its administration, and most of those holding government positions in Somali Region Zone Five are Muslims.

“Three years in a harsh jail in Jijiga for an innocent man is quite costly,” said the church leader, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The church is concerned about the condition of the father of two from Hagarmariam village.

Additionally, two of Woldegorgis’ friends were fined 5,000 Kenyan shillings (US$60) each for supporting him by either taking food to him or visiting him while in prison. The two were said to be condemned for supporting a criminal who allegedly desecrated the Quran and allegedly defamed Islam, church leaders said.

Woldegorgis’ Muslim associate, whose name has not been established, had gone to a mosque with the accusation that Woldegorgis had written “Jesus is Lord” in the Quran itself, sources said. Angry sheikhs at the mosque subsequently had Woldegorgis arrested for desecrating the book sacred to Islam, they said. Other sources said, however, that Muslims accused Woldegorgis of writing “Jesus is Lord” on a piece of wood, on a minibus and then on the wall of a house.

Sources previously told Compass that authorities had offered to release Woldegorgis if he would convert to Islam.

Hostility toward those spreading faiths different from Islam is a common occurrence in predominantly Muslim areas of Ethiopia and neighboring countries, they said. Christians are often subject to harassment and intimidation.

Ethiopia’s constitution, laws and policies generally respect freedom of religion, but occasionally some local authorities infringe on this right, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2010 International Religious Freedom Report.

According to the 2007 census, 44 percent of Ethiopia’s population affiliate with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, 19 percent are evangelical and Pentecostal and 34 percent are Sunni Muslim.

A faith leader said recently that a strongly hostile environment prevails towards Christians in North Africa, where the persecution is harsh.

Pastor Imad Dabour told delegates at the third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization, a.k.a. Cape Town 2010 that some tens of thousands of Christians in North Africa view persecution as part of their everyday life, Christian Today said.

Dabour noted that the region has, for the last eight centuries, had veritably little Christian presence. Nonetheless, it continues to grow despite daily challenges in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, according to Christian Today.

Most Christians in the region are converts from Islam. At present it is not known exactly how many they are, but estimates say there are tens of thousands. The new converts stand to lose friends and family because of their faith, and so they find it difficult to grow in their new identity, Christian Today said.

Dabour said, “There are two things about Christianity that we teach people. That it gives you salvation and a lot of joy with it – and persecution. Persecution is a basic teaching in our church,” Christian Today reported.

Another speaker at Cape Town 2010 was Rajael Achi who is with a children’s ministry in Lebanon. Achi noted that children face fear and violence due to unrest in the country and the Middle East region, Christian Today said.

Achi said, “Many people have lost hope in a good future in the country and want to leave. The children dream of leaving as they grow up.” Achi said the circumstances nonetheless also provide opportunities for evangelism, according to Christian Today.

Achi told delegates at the convention, “The Lord has given us freedom of worship and of ministry outreach and evangelism that we need to make use of. If we want a better future for Lebanon, if we want better leaders for Lebanon, we need to start now in reaching out to children,” Christian Today reported.

Two Muslim scholars, a Shiite and a Sunni, stated recently at a Vatican Synod that Islam endorses respect for Jews and Christians; and the Middle East will suffer if Christians leave the region.

The two Muslim scholars are Muhammad al-Sammak (Sunni), adviser to the chief mufti of Lebanon and secretary general of Lebanon’s Christian-Muslim Committee for Dialogue; and Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi (Shiite), a professor at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, CNS said.

Sammak and Ahmadabadi addressed the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East on the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI. The synod, ongoing until Oct. 24, aims to support Christians in the region where Christianity was born, AFP said.

Sammak said, “The Christian presence in the (Middle) East, working and living alongside Muslims, is as much a Christian as an Islamic necessity,” the AFP reported.

He also said the “new and accidental phenomenon” of Christian persecution for their faith is the act of misguided, fundamentalist, politically manipulated Muslims who show “Islam in a different light than the one it truly reflects,” CNS reported.

Sammak said he hoped that the synod, beyond being a “cry of Christian suffering,” will mark the start of “Islamic-Christian cooperation that can protect Christians and watch over Islamic-Christian relations,” according to CNS.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ahmadabadi said there is a need to protect minorities because “the stability of the world depends on the stability of the livelihood of small and large groups and societies,” Reuters reported.

Ahmadabadi added, “This stability could only be achieved when all can live without fear and threat from others. This is our duty to bring about such conditions,” according to Reuters.

Changing religions

In a meeting with reporters before the synod, Sammak said the ancient Muslim practice of harsh punishment on Muslims who convert came from a time “when changing religions meant joining the enemy.” However, he cited the “golden rule” of Islam, that “there is no compulsion in religion,” CNS reported.

Ahmadabadi said religion is a private matter, “but conversion means something else.” When pressed to clarify, he said publicly announcing one has left one’s original faith is “propaganda” that is unacceptable, CNS said.

The purpose of the synod is to determine how to protect minority Christian  communities in the Middle East, and to determine ways to promote harmony with other religions, Reuters said.

Christians have been emigrating in alarming numbers, of late. A century ago, they comprised 20 percent of the population in the Middle East, compared to only five percent today, Reuters reported.

Both Muslim scholars stressed however that aside from Islamic radicalization, there has also been a growth of fundamentalism in Israel, and among Zionist and Christian movements in the U.S., Reuters said.

Pope Benedict XVI urged recently Christians, Jews and Muslims to work together to forge peace in the Middle East, upon the start of a two-week Vatican conference which lasts until  Oct. 24 and includes as guests senior Jewish and Muslim leaders.

At a mass to denote the opening of a special synod of Catholic bishops, Benedict urged the three faiths to “promote spiritual and cultural values that unite people and exclude any form of violence,” according to the AFP.

In his sermon, Benedict urged the international community to champion “a trustworthy, loyal and constructive path towards peace” within the region, and added, “This is also a good occasion to continue our constructive dialogue with the Jews… as well as with the Muslims,” the AFP reported.

The pope called on church leaders from all over the Middle East to also discuss the Palestine-Israel issue and to discern ways to counter radical Islam, as well as examine church issues regarding the exodus of Christians from the Middle East, BBC News said.

According to a preparatory document, violence and discrimination against Christians in Egypt, Turkey and Iraq has also been singled out as an area of concern, the AFP said.

Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, who is charged with organizing synods, said in a news conference, “The vital dialogue with Judaism is one of the main objectives of the synod, along with the difficult but necessary dialogue with Islam,” the AFP reported.

Eterovic called Arab Christians “a natural bridge with Islam.” Of the Middle East conflict he said, “We hope we will be able to achieve peace and that the synod marks a step forward in this direction,” according to the AFP.

In the synod Arabic will be one of the official languages. The AFP said that while Muslim and Jewish leaders are slated to address the synod, they will do so on separate schedules and will not meet.

Eterovic said, “We want maximum visibility for the Catholic church in this region, which is so vital to Christian history and which has been hit by tensions, conflicts, religious and political upheaval in the past 2,000 years,” the AFP reported.

He also expressed concern that “difficult conditions” from violence and discrimination has led to a mass exodus of Christians from Iraq, according to BBC News.

Of note, a century before, Christians comprised 20 percent of the Middle East population. Today they are only five percent, BBC News reported. Out of some 356 million people in the Middle East, only 20 million are Christians, the AFP said.

Nonetheless, Eterovic also said that while many Arab, Iranian and Turkish Christians have fled, many Catholics have come to the Gulf States from India and the Philippines, BBC News said.

Pastor Artur Suleimanov, 49, was shot by unidentified gunmen recently while leaving Hosanna Christian Church in Dagestan on July 15.

Suleimanov was a Russian pastor who founded the biggest Protestant church in the Northern Caucasus region. The church has 1,000 members, 80 percent of whom were previously Muslim.

He was murdered recently after a media report said he deserved to die for converting too many Muslims.

Dagestan, located in the Caucasus mountains, is home to 2.6 million people, 91 percent of which are Muslim. Missionaries from outside Dagestan had not matched Suleimanov’s success, who was a native of the region.

Because the country borders Chechnya, it is often caught in the crossfire of a longstanding conflict between Russia and Chechen Sunni Islam separatists leading to many civilian deaths.

Further adding to tensions is the regular crackdown of the Russian government on Wahhabis Sunni Islam separatists. Muslims dislike Russian Orthodoxy because it is considered a Russian faith. Christian minorities are also persecuted, CDN said.

Suleimanov leaves behind his wife Zina and five children, CDN said.

Sam Childers arriving to the Book Signing Event of his book “Another Man’s War,” Beverly Hills, CA on May 5, 2009 - Photo by Glenn Francis of www.PacificProDigital.com Source: Wikimedia Commons

Hollywood action superstar Gerard Butler, whose recent high-octane roles include King Leonidas in “300” (2006) and Clyde Shelton in “Law Abiding Citizen” (2009), will soon be playing the role of real-life AK-47-toting Pastor Sam Childers in 2012’s “Machine Gun Preacher,” according to the Internet Movie Database.

A former bike gang member and drug dealer, Childers underwent a massive spiritual transformation in 1992, during a revival at an Assembly of God church and his pastor prophesied that Sam would one day travel to Africa.

Six years later, near the close of 1998, Childers boarded a plane for the Sudan.

It would be the first of several trips he would make to the war-torn region where the Ugandan sectarian militant group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Koney, had abducted and tortured an estimated 30,000 children and displaced 1.6 million people since the start of the rebellion in 1986.

The LRA claims they act under the principles and morals found in the Christian Bible and the Ten Commandments.

Childers made it his life’s mission to defend and protect the innocent children of the Sudan region by any means necessary.

For the past 12 years, the so-called “unconventional American pastor” has lived and operated in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. His Angels of East African Children’s village has become a safe haven for rescued children.

“Machine Gun Preacher” is currently in its preproduction phase and will begin shooting in Pennsylvania in early July, according to Variety Magazine.

Under the directorship of Golden Globe nominee Marc Foster, whose 2008 “Quantum of Solace” follow-up to the 2006 James Bond remake “Casino Royale” cemented him as a Hollywood action-film giant, “Machine Gun Preacher” will co-star Michelle Monoghan of “Mission Impossible 3” (2006) and “Eagle Eye” (2008) fame as Childers’ wife Lyn.

The Christian Post recently interviewed Childers about his use of heavy firearms.

“I don’t condone violence at all,” he responded. “I don’t believe in violence but at the same time I don’t believe that children should be raped, murdered or cut up.”

Gerard Butler at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards. Photo © gerardjamesbutler.co.uk Fan Site.

He also added, “I look at it as self-defense and I look at it as I’m helping God’s children. I’m not a person out to murder. It’s not that I like hurting anybody. But at the same time these people [the LRA] need to be stopped.”

Childers’ book Another Man’s War: the True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan and his official web site http://machinegunpreacher.org/ recall “the gruesome scenes after LRA raids that included the smelling of burning flesh and saving a woman drenched in her own blood from a breast that was half cut off by a machete,” according to The Christian Post.

Childers also recounted the LRA’s forcing of their victim’s to engage in cannibalism and children to murder their own mothers.

The biopic film’s release dates have undergone several changes and reschedulings since entering preproduction and is now slated for release sometime in 2012 with Lionsgate Entertainment and in association with 1984 Films.

You can find out more about Childers and his Angels of East Africa organization at his website www.machinegunpreacher.org.