Background:

The Dutch radio show ‘Tijdsein’ of the Evangelical Broadcasting Company (EO) reports on the freedom of religion in the Islamic world. It mainly focuses on the position of Christians in Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Ghana and the freedom of religion in Islamic countries such as Iran and Pakistan.

For the full tape, please refer to the Conference on Cyprus: Religious persecution and Islamisation in Africa and South-East Asia.

Side A:

In countries like Algeria, Nigeria and Lebanon, Christians are being suppressed. They flee to Western countries. The churches they leave in their home countries, become weaker due to losing members. Christians, who stay in their home countries, sometimes gather at home because churches are closed. In Lebanon, the number of Christians dropped from 50 percent to 38 percent of the population.

In Iran, Christians who speak and use the Persian languages have more restrictions. Most Muslims in Iran speak Persian, so the government sees the use of Persian as an act of consignment. The government allegedly tolerates Armenian and Assyrian churches, because they were already in Iran before Islam emerged. Converted Christians though, are suppressed because the government does not understand why people would convert from Islam to Christianity.   

The church in Pakistan is young and exists of 3,5 million people. It is said that the current government does not suppress Christians, and it has returned possessions like schools that earlier governments had confiscated. Tough a Pakistani said that this happened only on paper. Practically not much else has been given back. Another problem for Christians is a law that states that one may not insult Islam. This law is allegedly easy to manipulate.

In Malaysia, it is said that there are no conflicts between Christians, Muslims and other religions, but the government has forbidden the use of a number of Arabic words from the Qurʾān. Both Muslims and Christians use these words, like the words for ‘God’ and ‘Gospel’. This is a problem because Malaysian Christians import their Christian literature from Indonesia, where they speak the same language and also use Arabic words. Unlike in Iran, Muslims can become Christian in Malaysia but Christians cannot spread the gospel.

In Ghana, problems between Muslims and Christians are more severe. In Ghana, the number of Muslims has increased  to around 30 percent of the country’s population, even though Islam has only been introduced a few decennia ago. Muslims, supposedly, encourage parents not to send their children to Christian - and thus, Western schools. Additionally, Saudi-Arabia supports countries in Africa economically, but only seems to help countries where Islam is not a majority yet.

Between the 28^th and the 42^nd minute, the news program shifts to an interview with a missionary who went to Suriname. From the 42^nd minute on, Tijdsein moves on the last topic: the Presidential elections of Palestine.