Islamic world.

The drive against Christianity within the Islamic world may be gaining momentum.

Islamabad--In Pakistan, British common law has now been replaced by laws based on the Koran and Sunnat. In October, Pakistan's National Assembly passed the necessary constitutional amendment. Prime Minister Nowaz Sharif called it the beginning of a new Islamic order.

Minority groups believe that religious persecution has now been further legalized, despite a clause that protects "religious freedom, traditions or customs of non-Muslim and their status as citizens." Earlier persecutions were on account of anti-blasphemy laws.

Pakistan's Catholic bishops opposed the measure and the government's claim that religious minorities do not object to the enforcement of Shariat (Islamic law).

Khartoum--In Sudan, the largest country in Africa, the dominant Arab Islamic rulers of the North are continuing their more than a decade-long war on the Christian and animist Negroes of the South. Of the five million people in the South, 2 1/2 million are at the point of starvation, a situation deliberately created by the Islamic marauding parties, who also kidnap children for sale in the North. Catholic Bishop Macram Gassis estimates 3000 young boys and girls have been sold into slavery this year alone.

In August, two Catholic priests and 28 Catholic civilians were arrested in Khartoum for alleged links to a dynamite attack. They were tortured in order to force a confession and thereby discredit Christianity.

Bishop Gassis condemns Western governments for their failure to act against the human rights violations of the regime. In the North, conversion from Islam to Christianity incurs the death penalty, and arrests for this purpose are not exceptional.

San'a--In Yemen, three Sisters of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity were murdered by an Islamic extremist in July. Two Sisters were from India, the third from the Philippines. The murderer was arrested and said he had done it because they were "preaching Christianity."

Al-Kosheh--Egyptian police arrested some 1200 Coptic Christians in September and October for allegedly retaliating against local Muslim activists. The local bishop and two priests are facing the death penalty for revealing the horrors of the arrests.

People were subjected to crucifixion rituals, teenage girls were raped, young children, even babies, beaten with sticks while their mothers were forced to watch, men were nailed to doors, given electric shocks and hung upside down.

The Al-Kosheh violence followed the murders of two Christians by Muslims, allegedly for the poisoning of a man, although doctors had recorded his death as due to natural causes.

Egypt cultivates an image of being a moderate country. But, Islamic law is the basis of the constitution and there is no freedom of religion.

Copts are the ancient Christian inhabitants of Egypt before the Arab Muslim invasions in the seventh century.

In Saudi Arabia, in June, up to 100 Christian foreigners were arrested for "religious activities." The Saudis do not permit Christian worship. Although the country has some 3-400,000 Filipinos as "guest workers", there is not a single Catholic Church in the country. Even private religious services are prohibited.

The United States has some 10,000 army and air force personnel plus extensive war materials in the country, but this, together with American interests in Saudi oil, seals the lips of its spokesmen.

After spending a month or more in jail, where they were subjected to torture to reveal other names, nine members of the prayer group were expelled from the country. Others are in places unknown. The ambassadors of the Philippines and the Netherlands were denied access to the prisoners.

The bishops of the Philippines have asked their government to take action. There have been numerous arrests of Christians for daring to pray in common in the past.

Mogadishu--The last Catholic missionaries left Somalia in September. Three Sisters of the Missionaries of Consolation left the capital on September 26, following the kidnapping of a fourth Sister who was released three days later.

In an open letter to the population, the Sisters explained they and their workers had received numerous threats. They hope to return some day.

The nuns' hospital was the main provider of maternity and child care in Mogadishu, serving Somalis without charge. It treated 500 children a week.

Dhaka--A Paris-based human rights group has warned that the persecution of Christians is increasing in Bangladesh.

Last spring, a large group of Muslims vandalized a Catholic girls' school and nearby Catholic and Baptist churches in the town of Dhaka and threatened the lives of priests, nuns, and lay workers. The attack followed a false announcement over the adjacent mosque's loudspeaker that Christians were demolishing the building.

About 85 per cent of Bangladesh's population of 135 million is Muslim, 12 per cent Hindu and the remaining 3-4 per cent is animist, Christian and Buddhist. Christians number half a million, about equally divided between Catholics and Protestants.

Jakarta--The Indonesian President B.J. Habibie has turned down the request of East Timor to allow self-determination. He declared that (mainly Catholic) East Timor is an integral part of Indonesia. Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic country.

An active resistance movement continues to fight for freedom. Indonesia's annexation of the eastern part of the island is not recognized by the UN. Catholic bishop Carlos Belos is the 1996 co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.