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Posted on 11/10/2001 1:05:22 PM PST by marshmallow

COSTA MESA, Calif. — One of the world's leading authorities on religious persecution sees a connection between the Osama bin Laden terror network and persecution directed against Christians around the world.

"He's tied in with a lot of persecution," Dr. Paul Marshall told ASSIST News Service. Marshall is the British-born author of “Their Blood Cries Out” and a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom in Washington D.C.

"In many settings it's radicals within his network who are carrying out persecution,” he said. “This is going on in the Philippines, Indonesia, and to some extent, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan—and of course, Afghanistan."

Marshall told ASSIST's senior correspondent Mark Ellis that bin Laden is allied with terrorist groups in Algeria and Nigeria that have been killing Christians.

"Bin Laden's had a lot of cooperation with Sudan—a major country in the world killing Christians," Marshall said. "The death toll in Sudan since 1998 is two million; that is more than every war in the Middle East in this past century. Most of these victims are Christians."

Marshall described bin Laden as the figurehead of a far-reaching organization with little hierarchical structure. He’s aided, he said, by Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's top lieutenant.

"If Osama bin Laden drops dead tomorrow, the situation has hardly changed," he said. "Zawahiri would take over—and he's probably worse."

The exact nature of bin Laden's involvement with worldwide persecution of Christians by Muslims is uncertain, Marshall admitted.

"It's not as if an order comes down from Kabul or Kandahar to Indonesia to go out and attack these people,” the author said. “They are allied; they have common goals—it's not top-down."

Even Muslim nations with no ties to bin Laden persecute Christians, he said.

"You get persecution in the Islamic world apart from bin Laden,” Marshall said. “Most notable is the Saudis—who are his enemy number one. They have arrested 15 Christians in the last two months. In the last week, they have tortured at least three of them.

“America is only beginning to share the experience of nations around the world where persecution at the hands of Islamic radicals is the norm,” Marshall said. "In Kaduna, Nigeria, over 5,000 people have been killed since the imposition of Islamic law. In Pakistan in 1997 the city of Shantinagar was leveled—razed—a city of 20,000 people. The death toll in Ambon, Indonesia is 5,000 to 6,000. The worst is Sudan, where an estimated 2 million have been killed by militant Muslims.”

“This is a great evil and we can fight it and reduce it," Marshall said. "But we can no more end all persecution than we can end all terrorism ... It should also be a wake-up call for Christians. Be informed and pray. No congregation in America should meet without praying for the persecuted church."

In related international stories:
• The foreign aid workers being held in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity seem to have survived the initial attacks on the country. Family and friends of Australians Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch said they've heard from an attorney for the aid workers that they seem to be well. The two Australians are being held along with four Germans and two Americans. The eight worked with the German-based organization Shelter Now. The Taliban offered to free the aid workers if the U.S. stopped its "massive propaganda campaign," but President George W. Bush rejected the offer.

• Christian relief agencies are preparing to shelter tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who are fleeing to Pakistan to escape U.S. military strikes. Some experts estimate that half the residents of Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad have already fled their homes. Even before the terrorist attacks, the United Nations had declared Afghanistan the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Now the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that an additional 1 million to 1.5 million new refugees will attempt to cross into Pakistan.

• The Taliban's supreme spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is reportedly telling his people that the U.S. is waging war on Afghanistan as part of a plot to install the former king who would promote Christianity in the country.

• Christians in Afghanistan are meeting in secret in remote villages, according to a report from Voice of the Martyrs. Practicing the Christian faith in a nation run by Muslim radicals is very dangerous, but the movement is spreading. Afghans encounter the Christian faith in refugee camps, through Christian short-wave broadcasts in local languages and through thousands of Bibles being smuggled into the country. "Afghanis walk sometimes for three or four days to attend Bible study classes in Peshawar and other places along the border," a prominent Pakistani Christian said.

• A former United Methodist missionary who served for years in Pakistan says Muslim schools are a major source of soldiers for radical Islam. Aileen Williams, who served with her husband, David, in Pakistan between 1965 and 1974, said parents are eager to have their children educated in an area with few schools. “Radical elements have taken young boys and taught them radical ideas such as martyrdom,” she said. “If you die for Islam, not only will you go to heaven, but your whole family will as well. The ingredients of poverty and misery create the circumstances under which such radical elements take hold."

• Pakistan's Christians report increased persecution since the start of the U.S.-led military offensive against Afghanistan. Believers have been beaten and their homes burned, and Christians in Pakistan fear that they could be victims of a Muslim holy war. One of Pakistan's Islamic leaders recently called on Muslims to kill two Christians for every Muslim killed by American troops in Afghanistan. Of Pakistan's 140 million people, only about 2 million are Christians.

• Pope John Paul II urged both Muslims and Christians to pray together for peace. "I beg God to keep the world in peace," he said. The pope said he hopes the U.S. will avoid a broad military attack that would undermine his efforts to east tensions between Muslims and Christians. "Religion must never be used as a reason for conflict," he said.

• The Taliban's supreme spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is reportedly telling his followers that the United States plans to overthrow the Taliban government and install Afghanistan's former king in order to promote Christianity in the country. In a speech carried on Taliban radio, Omar said the king "wants to come to Afghanistan as a puppet so that he can preach Christianity in Afghanistan."

• Muslim religious leaders in Pakistan reportedly issued a fatwa, promising that two Pakistani Christians will be killed for every Muslim who dies during American strikes on Afghanistan. Persecution of Christians in Pakistan continues. Beatings of Christians by Muslim mobs, and the burning and vandalizing of churches and a Christian school are reported.

• Muhhiddin Kabiri, deputy head of Tajikistan's Islamic Revival party, said his party does not oppose U.S. action against genuine terrorists. "We condemn the acts of terrorism in the United States and sympathize with the Americans," Kabiri told Keston News Service. He warned, however, that the campaign against terrorism must not become a campaign against Islam. "We will only support the United States if the battle is against genuine terrorists," he said. "It is exceptionally important that the revenge action now under way should not become a campaign against Muslims."

•A spokesman for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden renewed his call for a holy war against U.S. interests. "America must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop and there are thousands of young people who look forward to death like the Americans look forward to life," said Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. He added, "Holy struggle is a religious duty for every Muslim. This battle is a decisive battle between atheism and faith."

• A surge in heroin shipments may help fund the Taliban's war effort, according to the Miami Herald. Afghanistan's farmers are a major source of opium poppies and U.S. officials believe Afghanistan's Islamic government is dumping huge stockpiles of opium and heroin to gather money for their military.

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