DAR AL ISLAM - JORDAN: CHRISTIANS ARE PRESONA NON GRATAS IN THE 'MODERATE' MOSLEM NATION OF JORDAN

AUTHORITIES EXPEL FOREIGN CHRISTIANS

Local believers fear kingdom’s traditional religious tolerance may be waning.

ISTANBUL, January 29 (Compass Direct News) – Jordan has increased pressure on foreign Christians living in the kingdom, expelling many long-time residents over the past 13 months in what local churches see as an attack on their legitimacy.

Authorities deported or refused residence permits to at least 27 expatriate Christian families and individuals in 2007, a number of them working with local churches or studying at a Christian seminary, Compass has confirmed.

In all but one case, officials refused to provide written explanations for the decisions. But many of those expelled told Compass that they had been questioned by intelligence officers regarding evangelism of Muslims.

“They said that I am a threat to Jordanian security and I am making the society unstable,” said Hannu Lahtinen, a Finnish pastor deported last month. “They have a thousand ways to say you are preaching the gospel.”

Though not illegal, Christian “public proselytism” of Muslims is against government policy, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual report on religious freedom in Jordan.

But a Jordanian spokesperson told Compass that the government only deported foreigners who had broken the law or had been dishonest in their application for residency.

“There have been incidents where individuals have violated the legal terms of their residence in the country or have deeply offended religious and public sensibilities, or both,” said the official, who requested his name be withheld.

According to pastors from Jordan’s five official evangelical churches, recognized by the government as “societies,” authorities have long provided a wide degree of freedom for religious minorities.

Christians, including Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox, make up 3 percent of Jordan’s population but hold almost 10 percent of the seats in parliament. Catholic and Orthodox churches have their own family court system.

Evangelicals, who number approximately 5,000, have fewer rights than the historical churches but are tax exempt and can sponsor residence permits for foreign clergy.

In July 2006, Jordan published the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in its official Gazette, giving the covenant, which protects freedom of religion, force of law.

Against this backdrop of apparent tolerance, local church leaders said that they felt threatened by the escalating crackdown on foreigners. Pastors from denominations affected by the deportations said that it appeared that the government was challenging the local church’s legitimacy.

“We are a legal entity, and many of these foreigners have been granted visas as clergy working in legal Jordanian churches,” Nazarene pastor Afeef Halasa said. “Suddenly kicking them out without giving a reason communicates that our churches are not legitimate.”

Christians from the United States, Europe, South Korea, Egypt, Sudan and Iraq were among those deported or refused visas in 2007.

Intelligence officers handcuffed and blindfolded Finnish pastor Lahtinen after detaining him at an Amman gas station last December 5. Police held the clergyman for two days and then deported him without an official explanation. Lahtinen’s wife and two young sons returned to Finland the following week.

One month later, upon official inquiry from the Finnish Foreign Ministry, Jordanian authorities provided a written explanation of the pastor’s deportation.

Lahtinen was accused of being a threat to the country’s social stability and illegally residing in the kingdom, and he was in personal danger, according to a letter from Jordan’s Foreign Ministry to the Finnish embassy, Finland’s Ambassador Pertti Harvola confirmed.

A Jordanian government spokesperson told Compass that officials had repeatedly warned Lahtinen about his “activity.”

“It was found that he had been residing here illegally, with no work nor residence permit,” said the official.

“They have never warned me,” said Lahtinen, who also said that before deportation police had interrogated him about whether he was holding religious meetings for Muslims in his home.

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