[WCUSP] Fwd: BPFNA Digest, Vol 32, Issue 11

[Barbara Taft]

Just got this from the Baptist Peace Fellowship listserve.

Barb T.

--- bpfna-request at earlham.edu wrote:

Today's Topics:
   1. Manager of Christian bookstore in Gaza found murdered
      (Burton Bagby)
   2. Concern and Reflection on Christian killed in Gaza
      (Mary Lou Leiser Smith)


Message: 1
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 21:23:13 -0500
From: "Burton Bagby" <cbbagby at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: [BPFNA] Manager of Christian bookstore in Gaza found murdered
To: <bpfna at earlham.edu>
Message-ID: <015a01c80ae4$82c46770$210110ac at Burton>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

>From Associated Baptist Press:
 
Manager of Christian bookstore in Gaza found murdered
 
By Hannah Elliott
 
GAZA CITY, Palestine (ABP) -- The Palestinian Baptist manager of a
well-known Christian book store in the Gaza Strip has been murdered. 

Authorities reportedly found the body of Rami Ayyad on Oct. 7 in Gaza City.
He died from a gunshot wound to the head and numerous stab wounds, according
to officials from Open Doors, an agency that supports persecuted Christians
worldwide. He had been missing since Oct. 6, when he phoned his family to
say he had been kidnapped.

Reports differed on Ayyad's age. According to some, he was 30. Other reports
listed his age as 26.

Ayyad managed the Palestinian Bible Society bookshop and had received
several death threats from people angry about the store.
A spokesman for the bookstore said Ayyad was "the most gentle member on the
team."
 
He was "the ever-smiling one," Simon Azazian said in a press release
distributed by Open Doors. "He was the face of our Bible shop, always
receiving visitors and serving them as Jesus would."

The bookshop is Gaza's only Christian bookstore, according to the Baptist
World Alliance. It shares a common building with a library and community
development center, the base for one of the largest relief agencies in the
Gaza Strip.
 
In February 2006, two pipe bombs exploded in front of the shop. Following
that attack, workers received a letter demanding the shop close permanently,
according to Christianity Today. The Bible Society reopened it five weeks
later. This past April, terrorists firebombed it.
 
Ayyad is survived by his wife, Pauline, and two young children. Pauline
Ayyad is reportedly five months pregnant. 

Officials have said the shop will remain closed for an undetermined length
of time. 

Police have yet to identify suspects in the murder.

-30- 


Message: 2
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 23:17:22 -0400
From: "Mary Lou Leiser Smith" <mloupwj at nc.rr.com>
Subject: [BPFNA] Concern and Reflection on Christian killed in Gaza
To: "Baptist Peace  Fellowship" <BPFNA at earlham.edu>
 
As a follow-up to previous reports of this sad and tragic development, I believe it is important
keep this death in perspective, as stated by the Vice-Pres. of the European Parliament. My own
experience is of Palestinian Christians and Muslims working and living together in harmony as
they are both confronted by the same injustices of the Occupation of their land and life.
Mary Lou Leiser Smith
Coordinating Director
Coalition for Peace with Justice
www.peace-with-justice.org 
ICAHD-USA Executive Board
www.icahdusa.org 
Tel. 919-967-5181
Cell 919-619-6974 
 
PRESS RELEASE 
by
 
LUISA MORGANTINI
 
Vice President of the European Parliament


 DEEP MOURNING FOR THE CHRISTIAN KILLED IN GAZA: 
 
BUT DON'T EXPLOIT TRAGEDY AGAIN
 
Brussels, 9th October 2007 

The assassination, in the Gaza Strip, of Rami Khader Ayyad, is a very serious matter that has
shaken us all: I express my condolences to the family and to the Christian community.

The responsibility of this murder must be brought to light and the perpetrators must be
punished, as declared by Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority and by ther
leadeship of Hamas on the Gaza strip. 

For its part, the International community and the media must make every effort to avoid any
exploitation of this tragedy, which would give credence to a very dangerous thesis that links
this isolated episode to a clash between religions. This event must be condemned, but is the
work of maddened splinter groups within an exhausted society, - such is Gaza.

Fouad Twal, Coadjutor Archbishop of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and Pierbattista
Pizzaballa, head of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, also affirmed this, excluding
persecution of Christians in the Gaza Strip. 
 
Up to now, Christians have left  Palestine mainly because of the impossibility of living behind
a wall, blocked by check points and with no economic perspectives. But the danger of a spiral of
violence is real. 
 
These episodes of intolerance and brutality can be avoided only by working for the end of the
Israeli military occupation, for justice, dialogue and reconciliation  in the Middle East, but
above all by not allowing extremist groups the possibility of manipulating the desperation of a
people struggling for a Palestinian State, independent and autonomous,  in security alongside
the Israeli State, where freedom of religion and expression would be  the basis of a real
democracy and civil cohabitation. 
 
Further info Luisa Morgantini  0039 348 39 21 465 or Francesca Cutarelli 0039 340 56 49 335
 
Luisa.morgantini at europarl.europa.eu www.luisamorgantini.net



       
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