Religion Today Summaries - Oct. 13, 2006

Bathe Schools, Students in Prayer, Says Christian Educator

The recent spate of school shootings in the U.S. have parents worried about the safety of their children -- and that's how it should be, according to a Christian educator. AgapePress reports that Finn Laursen, president of Christian Educators Association International, says the recent shootings -- and the Amish school tragedy, in particular -- should be a wake-up call to those parents who are not concerned. "We need to be aware that as over 50 million students are sent off to school every day, there is no such thing as a place or a school classroom that is totally safe," says Laursen. The CEAI leader believes that all schools need a crisis plan of operation in which everyone knows just what action to take. "And even more importantly, we need to be sure that every single school is covered in prayer," he adds. "And we need to be sure that every single child is prayed over."

Turkish Teenager Sentenced for Murdering Priest

Eight months after an Italian Catholic priest was shot to death in his church along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, the Trabzon Criminal Court yesterday sentenced his teenage killer to nearly 19 years in prison, Compass Direct News reports. But according to legal experts quoted throughout the Turkish press, the young convict is expected to serve only 10.5 years in jail. Identified during the murder trial only by his initials, O.A., the minor was named in today’s Radikal newspaper as 16-year-old Oguzhan Aydin. Father Andrea Santoro, 60, was shot twice in the back with a Glock pistol after Sunday mass on February 5 as he knelt at the altar of the Santa Maria Catholic parish in Trabzon. Although two eyewitnesses to the murder did not see the assailant’s face, they heard him shout the opening words of the Muslim call to prayer, “Allahu akbar [God is great].”

Christians in India Beaten, Detained Following Media Reports

Compass Direct News reports a church in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district cancelled its weekly meeting yesterday (October 10) due to tensions in the region following false reports of forcible conversion in newspapers. The reports led to two attacks in the past week. A local Christian who requested anonymity told Compass that tensions began on October 4, when local editions of national Hindi dailies published reports on the supposed forced conversion of 350 Hindu villagers to Christianity in Belahta village. More than 1,000 people, mostly believers from Belahta and nearby villages, had prayed and worshipped in a tent pitched outside the house of a convert. The next day, local villagers along with extremists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and police vandalized the structure. They threatened that if the meetings continued or any Christian from outside the village was seen again, they would resort to unprecedented violence.

Court in Nigeria Condemns Militant Muslim Leader to Death

A Muslim militant Islamic leader who spearheaded religious conflict that engulfed northern Nigeria in 1984 has been sentenced to death by a high court in the northern state of Adamawa, Compass Direct News reports. The Yola High Court on Tuesday (October 10) ordered Musa Suleiman, also known as Musa Makaniki, leader of an unorthodox Islamic sect known as Maitatsine, to death by hanging. He was convicted on all three counts against him: homicide, inciting public disturbance, and criminal conspiracy. Justice Bamare Bansi, also the chief judge of Adamawa state, said in his judgment that there was overwhelming evidence that proved the Muslim militant leader masterminded a large-scale religious riot in which an estimated 3,000 Christians and Muslims died. Suleiman just smiled when the death sentence was pronounced.