Taliban attacks on the rise in Afghanistan

The Taliban claimed responsibility for two attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least 15 police officials at checkpoints, officials confirmed Monday. The latest attack comes amid a spate of Taliban strikes against security officials across the country. More than 200 people have died in Taliban attacks this month alone.

Ari Noori, government spokesman of the eastern Ghazni province, said the insurgents attacked a checkpoint in the region in a battle that lasted more than an hour. Militants killed nine police officers, and security forces killed seven of the insurgents before the attack ended, Noori said. Late Sunday, the militants attacked another checkpoint in the southern Zabul province. Amir Jan Alokozai, a district administrative chief, said six police officials died in the ensuing clashes. The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks.

The insurgent group last Wednesday killed at least 11 soldiers when it attacked security posts in western Afghanistan. On Oct 16, the Taliban launched a string of assaults on Afghan security units that killed more than 70 people.

Ebrahim Deen, an analyst with the Afro Middle East Center in South Africa, identified the attackls as part of the Taliban’s annual spring offensive, which the Islamic extremist group announced in April. The group said in a statement it would target foreign and government forces and promised to minimize civilian casualties. Foreign Policy reported some 3,043 people died or sustained injuries from improvised explosive devices between the beginning of April and the end of June, according to information obtained from the U.S. Defense Department.

Afghan forces have battled the Taliban’s insurgency since the United States and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in the country at the end of 2014. U.S. President Donald Trump in August approved a plan to deploy an additional 3,800 troops to Afghanistan. Banda Felbab-Brown, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told Agence France-Presse the Taliban’s spate of attacks reflects a shift toward striking military installations and as a sign of strength: “They haven’t tried to hold provincial capitals. … They are not wasting their assets on that.”

Indonesian church forced to cancel Reformation event

Muslim objections prompted the cancellation of an Indonesian prayer service meant to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation last week. The act renewed concerns over deteriorating tolerance in the nation once known for religious freedom.

The Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia planned an event at Kridosono Stadium in Yogyakarta, Java, last Wednesday but learned on Oct. 12 that stadium officials had canceled their rental agreement.

UCA News reported the Forum Ukhuwah Islamiyah (FUI), an arm of Indonesia’s top Muslim clerical body, asked stadium officials to prevent the gathering, claiming it was designed to convert Muslims and had “potential to become an arena of apostasy under the guise of mass healing.”

FUI threatened to disrupt the event. Local police denied that hardline Muslim pressure forced the cancellation, saying the church did not have a permit.

In a statement, the church rejected both claims, saying it followed all proper procedures to get permission and the Rev. Stephen Tong never performed physical healings.

The statement criticized favoritism shown to Islamists, saying, “We are very concerned of the partiality shown toward intolerant groups that have continued to use ‘security’ and ‘peace’ as the basis of their intolerance.”

Muslim scholar Achmad Nurcholish told UCA News, “It's a sign that in our society it is difficult to accept people of different beliefs.”

He warned, “acts of intolerance will continue unless the government pays serious attention to it.”

The church held other events celebrating the anniversary of the Refomation in Indonesia without incident. —Julia A. Seymour

UN accused of abandoning civilians in Central African Republic

As violent militia clashes persisted in the Central African Republic, some Muslim civilians said they bribed United Nations contractors as much as $100 to smuggle them out of the volatile town of Bangassou after UN peacekeepers repeatedly failed to do so.

The Central African Republic fell into chaos in 2013 after the Muslim Seleka rebel group overthrew the Christian government. The nominally Christian anti-Balaka militia group sprang up to fight back, and several other militia groups emerged. Bangassou became a hotspot for clashes earlier this year, and reportedly nine UN peacekeepers died there. More than 2,000 Muslim civilians sought refuge at a Catholic church in the town. Some of the civilians paid contracted pilots to board planes that brought in food and material for the UN troops.

Ashanti Ngaye, a 35-year-old mother of four, paid $200 to drivers of a Dubai-based company, ECOLOG International, to get her family and two other relatives to the capital, Bangui. In August, the UN peacekeeping mission sent a letter to ECOLOG contractors asking them to take concrete steps to avoid future unauthorized transport of civilians. —O.O.

Myanmar sentences two Christian leaders

A court in Myanmar’s Shan state sentenced a pastor and a youth leader to prison on charges of supporting rebels and defaming the military. The court sentenced Dumdaw Nawng Lat, a 67-year-old pastor with the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), to four years and three months in prison. Langjaw Gam Seng, a 35-year-old KBC youth leader, received a sentence of two years and three months.

Authorities in Myanmar, also known as Burma, first detained the men in December after they led journalists to the town of Mangko, where the military bombed a Catholic church in a November 2016 airstrike. Nawng Lat received an additional two-year sentence for speaking to Voice of America about the airstrikes.

“How many more human rights defenders have to be locked up before the world realizes the Myanmar military have no intention of being held to account for their crimes?” David Baulk, with regional rights group Fortify Rights, told the Frontier Myanmar news magazine.

Myanmar’s military has faced multiple accusations of human rights abuses and targeted attacks against ethnic minorities. The United Nations accused the military of ethnic cleansing after more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fled the country’s Rakhine state following military clearance operations. —O.O.

Coptic leaders complain of closure of churches

Egyptian security officials in October sealed up four Coptic churches following attacks and threats against the Christian minority group. But the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Minya called on authorities to investigate the crimes, not just shut down the churches.

In a statement released Saturday, the church provided details about the closures that took place between Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. The church of Anba Musa closed Oct. 22 after attackers threw stones at the church and wounded four Copts. Authorities shut down the church but failed to arrest the attackers, the diocese said. “The Copts always pay the price of this coexistence, not the aggressors,” the statement said.

Minya’s Gov. Essam Badawi on Monday denied the churches’ report, saying authorities instead closed down the churches because they operated in “unlicensed houses” that lacked documentation to perform “religious rites.” He acknowledged authorities arrested 15 suspects over an attempted attack on one of the churches earlier in October. —O.O.

Kenya’s president wins disputed second election

Kenya’s electoral commission on Monday declared incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the election redo, stoking fears of more political unrest. The commission said Kenyatta won 98 percent of the vote, but only 38 percent of voters showed up. Election officials said voting did not take place in four western constituencies, all opposition strongholds, citing security reasons. Kenya’s Supreme Court ordered the election do-over because of alleged irregularities in the initial August vote. Since August, more than 55 people died in election-related violence. Opposition supporters argued the electoral commission did not make enough reforms to ensure the new election was free and fair. Opposition leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday called for another vote. “If there is no justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government,” he said. —O.O.

UN expert decries poor state of global religious freedom

Three-quarters of the world’s people face restrictions or high levels of social hostility toward their right to religion or belief, said the UN special expert on religious rights. Ahmed Shaheed said more than 70 countries still have anti-blasphemy laws that “often serve as platforms for enabling intolerance.” Religious discrimination can manifest as a direct ban or indirect restrictions such as zoning laws that prevent construction of places of worship, he said. Shaheed called on states to repeal their blasphemy laws and urged them to enforce “adequate criminal sanctions penalizing violent and particularly egregious discriminatory acts perpetrated by state or nonstate actors against persons based on their religion or belief.” —O.O.