Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia

Malaysia is officially a Moslem country, with small proportions of Buddhists, Hindus, adherents of other indigenous beliefs, and Christians. Its government allows and actively encourages Christians to proselytise, but only among the non-Moslem populace. Since poverty is uncommon in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, Christian missions employ different methods to proselytise among the populations than those used in India, Sri Lanka, Tibet and Nepal.

In Asian countries especially in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia Christian Missionaries use unethical methods to proselytise the "Heathens". Examples of which are visits to the hospitals and houses of those persons suffering from terminal diseases such as Cancer and Aids Victims. Deathbed conversions are very common. They know very well that a dying person will grasp at a straw.Another method they use is to exploit those who are suffering from emotional problems such as deaths of love ones and others. Here is how they operate:

1. Identify your victims especially those who are suffering from emotional problems such as the sick.
2. Visit them and give them emotional support and monetary aid (with ulterior motive)
3. Quote the relevant passage from the bible.
4. Strike while the iron is hot.
5. Then the church has him/her.
6. Once the person has been converted the church's investment pays off. He/She will have to make monthly contribution to the church

The main aim of deathbed conversion is two fold:
Once the dying person is converted then that family will employ the priest/pastors to perform the funeral rites. And this cost money which will be contributed to the church. The Church's coffers will be enriched Secondly they hope that the loved ones of the death person will be converted to Chrsitianity and then will pay tithes to the church thus enriching the church again.
They will persistently visit the families to bring the "Good News" of the Gospels.
These missionaries attend seminiares organised by the church on methods of conversion and they are trained psychologists ready to exploit the weakness and frailities of human nature.

Link

Cambodia

Mormon missionary work in Cambodia as well as that of other Christian denominations active there, has resulted in the Cambodian government banning door-to-door proselytizing, similar to Sri Lanka’s recent (failed) attempts to restrict unethical conversions.

Mormon missionaries gate-crashing into Buddhist Cambodia - Taipei Times (AFP), June 14, 2004

"We had people coming to us to complain about the disturbances Christian groups were causing," Yem Yadavat, head of the foreign religious affairs department at the ministry of cults and religious affairs, said.

"We issued this directive to prevent conflicts that could arise between Buddhism and Christianity," she said, without specifying which groups sparked the complaints. No further complaints have been received, she said.

...the Mormons are still turning up unannounced at some homes.

Unfortunately, Christians hold the Law of God, to spread the Good Word, higher than the law of any country. Cambodians can now well expect to see missionary activity that attempt to bypass their laws.

The Mormons reject charges that they are overstepping any cultural boundaries by encouraging conversion in a country where more than 95 percent of the 13-million population are Buddhist.

"We firmly believe what we teach is the truth. We don't force anyone to believe ... We don't say that Buddha is wrong, we just teach our religion," Towers said.

Of course Mormon missionaries, being still a minority in this 95% Buddhist land, don't go around anouncing that the Buddha is wrong and Buddhists are damned. Once a significant proportion of the population ahve been converted to Christianity, a different song will emerge along with the usual vandalism and destruction to wipe out indigenous religions.

The first Mormon missionaries hit Cambodia in 1998, the same year peace descended on a country wrecked by decades of conflict, including the 1975-79 chaos of the Khmer Rouge regime, which left up to 2 million dead and abolished religion.

The missionaries came exactly at the usual time: when the Vietnamese would still be vulnerable after the horrendous period of communist turmoil, yet when it was safe enough for missionaries to go around the country.

Pisey Touch, one of Cambodia's first female Mormon missionaries: ... "I see violence in families -- husbands beat their wives, they are poor and uneducated. If they know about the gospels, they will stop violence and follow the commandments of God," the former Buddhist said.

Resorting to the usual misrepresentation and stereotyping of people of other faiths, this missionary declares that since the unconverted haven't accepted Christ, they probably all behave unethically and make others' lives hell. Yet Mormons, like all other Christian denominations, tend to have even more serious problems among their own ranks. Christians ought to be the last to point fingers at others in matters of abuse, especially since in their case it is well-documented and not based on mere assumptions.

Vietnam

History about to repeat itself in Vietnam:
Vietnam, US resume human rights dialogue - Xinhua News (Chinese news), 20 Feb 2006

HANOI, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Vietnam and the United States restored their human rights dialogue here on Monday after more than three years of suspension, a U.S. official said at a press briefing.

The two sides had productive discussion on religious freedom in Vietnam, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Barry Lowenkron, said after working with senior Vietnamese officials on the issue.

They also discussed other political rights of citizens, including those on freedom in establishing non-governmental organizations and using Internet, he said.

The key words being religious freedom in Vietnam and freedom to establish NGOs. In other words, freedom for evangelical missionaries from the US to come over to Vietnam and trouble the Buddhist population as they have been doing in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. And it will ensure the rights of both missionaries and converted citizens to continue the harassment of the local population (paradoxically grouped under the terminology "religious freedom") in their Commission to spread the Gospel.
Catholics tried the same in the 50s, and now the Fundamentalist Protestant branches are going to attempt to finish the job (and Buddhism) in Vietnam.
The question is: will the Vietnamese learn from their past and from other countries around them? Or is their country now on its way to becoming another South Korea, India or Sri Lanka?

Buddhist Thailand, besides being under attack from the Moslem insurgents in its south, is in similar straits to other Asian Buddhist nations when it comes to Christianity. In parts of Thailand, the situation is similar to that of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. In other parts, the case is similar to China, Korea, Sri Lanka, India or Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Perhaps one can eventually expect Thailand's situation to overlap somewhat with Nepal's predicament, which until recently was a monarchy too.

Persians and Iran

Definition of Persian

The ancient Persian empire was built by the Zoroastrians. Christians from outside and within caused it immense trouble and unrest.
Christian Rome and Armenia plotted and carried out attempts at its downfall, whilst Christian converts within Persia plotted against the nation despite it providing them high religious tolerance and freedom. While converted Rome attacked Persia for not converting to the True Faith and Armenia organised large-scale insurgencies (and now claim they were the persecuted victims), the Christian converts in Persia worked with their country's external enemies whilst simultaneously harassing Persians with their missionary zeal and trying to fracture the fabric of Persian society. Though the nation just managed to withstand these concerted Christian efforts to topple it at the time, Persia finally fell to Islam which subsequently persecuted its people ruthlessly.
It is ridiculous for Islam and Christianity - both of which were virulently against Persia in the past and trying to secure the very destruction of this Zoroastrian nation - to now try and claim the ethno-religious term Persian. Zoroastrians have made it clear that Persian describes the non-Christian, non-Moslem people of Iran - that is, Zoroastrians. We therefore do not support attempts by modern-day Christians of Iranian ancestry to appropriate the term, but stick to the true definition. There are no Christian Persians, or Moslem ones, for that matter.
Likewise, Parthian refers to the Zoroastrian Iranians from Parthia (a part of modern-day Iran and Afghanistan) and from the kingdoms they founded in Babylon and the rest of Mesopotamia, and their Zoroastrian descendants today. Parthia had also faced the same twin dangers that had plagued Persia.

Revival

A significant number of Iranians today are interested in their ancestral religion of Zoroastrianism, the religion which had given rise to the Persian Empire and Parthia and under which the Zoroastrian Iranians developed their skills and the arts.
See Iran's other religion - Boston Review, 2003.
It discusses Iranians' reviving interest in their indigenous, ancestral religion of Zoroastrianism.

Interest in Zoroastrianism is seen as invitation for Christianity

On wide perusal of the article Iran's other religion, many Christians in America immediately misunderstood this revival as some kind of invitation for them to come and convert Iranians. For instance, the American message board freerepublic had several eager members thinking such Iranians could easily be inducted into the flock, through use of the fable of the 3 Magi visiting the infant Jesus - a narrative that is itself plagiarised from the Zoroastrian subsect of Mithraism, as Persians and other Iranian people know well. Persians are also not likely to confuse their interest in Zoroastrianism for Christianity, and they are well aware that the Christian misconception of Messiah is not the same as the Zoroastrian Saoshyant. (See more in the section Origins.) Besides, they just escaped from Islamic Iran which they realise is not much different from Christianity anyway.

Unfortunately, there are numerous Iranians in America, who, in shedding Islam have fallen into Christianity. This is mostly because Persians in the US are being specifically targetted by evangelical Christians, who are very much on the lookout for Iranians who clearly identify themselves as Persian. In wanting to fit in and feeling pressurised, Persian immigrants sometimes adopt Christianity (making them no longer Persian), instead of realising they are allowed to think for themselves. Their choices are not limited to Islam and Christianity.

Persian persecution in the past

Today's Iranians may have either forgotten or don't know that their Persian ancestors and the Zoroastrian religion were persecuted by Christianity. In addition to this, Christian Rome as well as Armenia after its forced conversion were constantly attempting to mount insurgencies in both Persia and Parthia. Christians also tried to break both these Iranian countries through treachery from within by creating civil strife. Although Persia weathered Christianity and the wars Christian nations made upon it, it was left significantly weakened and didn't have time to recover before its unforeseen fall to Islam.
The remnants of Zoroastrianism and its influences in the West were branded heretical and frantically persecuted. Even the Knights Templar were denounced and persecuted for their "Zoroastrian heresy" by Pope Clement V and France's King Philip the Fair in the 14th century. Though Soldiers of Christ, the Templars were an Order whose origins were traced back to Rome's pagan Soldiers of Mithras from centuries back.

Targeting the Persians outside and inside Iran

Christians are focussing primarily on what they call the Persian diaspora in the US, but also in Australia and elsewhere. Besides this, missionaries are also approaching Iranians on their own soil in Iran, using Bibles translated into the Parsi language which is also known as Farsi.
See "Persian diaspora" and Persian World Outreach.

Australia's detained refugees, many of them Iranians, are released if they convert

It is not known of these people whether they were Moslem upon converting or whether they had already left Islam behind upon fleeing Iran. So it is possible they could have been persecuted individuals of any of the Moslem sects (Sufis, Bahais, Shias or Sunnis) prior to their conversion, not necessarily Zoroastrian or considering becoming Zoroastrian. Nevertheless, the favouritism shown towards Christian convert refugees by Australia's government is rather disconcerting. Australia's Christian organisations have been unevenly influencing the government on this:

Detainees who find Christ may be allowed to stay - Sydney Morning Herald, March 21, 2005:

Thirty of Australia's longest-term immigration detainees are having their cases reviewed and could be freed because they have converted to Christianity since arriving.

...It follows strong lobbying efforts by several Government backbenchers, churches and the powerful Family First party [a Fundamentalist Christian party] for the Government to relax its refugee policy for Christian converts.

...Previously, the Immigration Department has viewed conversions to Christianity with suspicion. But yesterday a spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, confirmed the only reason for reconsidering the 30 cases was their new religion.

...The president of the Uniting Church, the Reverend Dean Drayton, has supported the applications of about 50 Iranian Christians, most of whom have converted while in detention.

...In the past month, he said, the Government seemed to be "far more open to requests" for the applications to be reconsidered. "I don't think there has been a change of policy but the minister has the power to intervene and provide a reassessment of cases and I think the minister's been doing that."

How are Australia's detainees converting? - ABC net, 21 March, 2005:

Church leaders and refugee advocates say that detainees have regular access to Christian reading material and services. But they say that the motivation for converting to a Christian faith does vary from a genuine interest to the hope that the new faith will help their case for asylum.

MARIE SCOUTAS: The Christian priests and nuns PM has spoken to have insisted they're not pushing detainees to convert to Christianity.
MARIE SCOUTAS: Refugee advocate, Marion Le, says it's not just priests and nuns who are spreading the word.
MARION LE: It's lay people as well who go in. Some of them, in Villawood particularly, I've sat in on Bible study groups where young people have gone in and shared their Christianity with the detainees.

Conversion attempts that don't work among the regular Australian citizens are miraculously working amongst the Iranians detained in such conditions. Of course no one needs to force these refugees to convert, the circumstances are already such that conversion seems to be a far better choice. (Though in general, coercion is definitely not frowned upon in Christianity, as seen in the situation of other countries.) The Iranians, being kept cooped up indefinitely, are undoubtedly in a vulnerable position: the right state to be preyed upon by Christian missionaries offering them freedom in exchange for conversion.
The words Bible Study group indicate that the dreaded fundamental Christianities are also at work.

Refugees set to get visas under new Australian policy - Taipei Times (a Taiwanese paper), Mar 24, 2005:

Of the around 120 detainees who have been held for more than three years, most are Iranian converts to Christianity who cannot be repatriated because they risk arrest, torture or even death if they return home. In Iran, as in other Moslem countries, renouncing Islam is a crime.

The government has argued that the Christian converts are not being accorded special treatment but that their religious affiliation heightens the level of risk they face if they are returned to their homeland.

Greens leader Bob Brown said the new bridging visa for asylum-seekers would leave recipients in a "cruel limbo" because it didn't guarantee them permanent residency.
"What Amanda Vanstone is saying is, if you don't want to stay and rot for years behind the razor wire, renounce all your legal rights as a citizen, as a human being, and we'll let you out," he said.
"It's inhumane and the government's harrowing record of mistreatment of asylum seekers to this country continues."

The question becomes, why attempt to convert the Iranian refugees if they won't be safe upon returning to their home countries? Non-Christian refugees are probably to be sent back or to remain languishing in the detention facilities for longer. If they don't want to stay there and fear returning to their theocratic country, the only option remaining to them is to consider converting.

From 2004 (a year earlier), Deporting Christian convert angers Family First - The Age, November 21, 2004:

A serious rift has developed between Family First - the party expected to be the principal ally of the Coalition in the Senate - and the Howard Government over the deportation of an Iranian asylum seeker who converted to Christianity.

[Andrea Mason, the former Family First leader and party spokeswoman:] "What the Government is doing is repugnant to all Christians and should not be allowed to continue. Iran is a country that punishes people who renounce Islam, and these people are being placed in danger by being sent back"

Ms Mason's church, the Assemblies of God, is campaigning internationally to force Iranian authorities to release Hamid Pourmand, a 47-year-old lay pastor, and 85 evangelical church members arrested in September for proselytising, a practice outlawed under Iran's religious codes.

The deportation has alarmed human rights, Christian and refugee groups, who suspect the deportation signifies a sudden hardening in the Federal Government's attitude to the 91 Iranians remaining in detention.

Christian groups seem to be alarmed when one of their new flock is deported, yet do nothing about the terrorism and genocides they helped start and are actively funding in other countries. More surprising is the silence of general human rights groups in these matters.
The international campaign to release Hamid Pourmand, obviously an Iranian Christian, and 85 others, is also interesting. Particularly since they're all evangelising back in theocratic Islamic Iran where such practises are strictly forbidden. Their own foolishness in sending them there is at fault. It's not like they didn't know - they seem to be very much aware of how apostasy in Islam is punished. Perhaps Australian Churches see the Iranian detainees who've converted as more Hamid Pourmands: "native missionaries" who could one day secretly return to their homeland to evangelise amongst their own people.