The Voice of the Martyrs, 9 September 2021 (excerpts)

Momina Namee, 30, grew up in a Muslim family and was pressured to marry a Muslim man while she was young.

Soon after they married, they had a son. But three years after their son’s birth, Momina’s husband suddenly fell ill and passed away. Devastated and a single mother, Momina struggled to get by as her husband had been the provider for the family.

One day, two Christian women met Momina on the street and shared the gospel with her. Momina told them that she was a Muslim, and the Christian women asked her address, visiting her often.

Eventually, Momina placed her faith in Christ and began attending a Christian church.

But when the Muslim woman who provided shelter to Momina found out about her newfound faith, she drove Momina and her son out of the house.

Momina was homeless, and her family and relatives stopped associating with her because of her faith in Christ. When Momina’s church leaders heard about her situation, they rented a home for her.

Pray that Momina will be able to provide for her and her son as she rebuilds her life. Pray that she can be a faithful witness to Christ to her family and pray that they will come to faith in Him.

Morning Star News, 26 August 2021 (excerpts)

Muslim relatives of a former Islamic teacher in Uganda who became a Christian set a trap for him last month, hiring killers to bury him alive in a large ant mound, sources said.

Saban Sajabi, 32, had gained repute as an itinerant sheikh, teaching Islam in various mosques and schools in eastern Uganda, before an uncle led him to faith in Christ in 2015.

He received further threats after marrying Sarah Birungi, a Christian, in 2016.

Birungi said that Sajabi on July 14 received a telephone call saying the uncle who led him to Christ, Shadrach Hasakya, was suffering a serious illness.

“We left Jinja immediately, leaving behind our children ages 6 and 2 under the care of the house girl,” she said.

Arriving at about 8 p.m., they were warmly greeted by motorcyle taxi drivers who offered to take them to Hasakya’s home in Kabula, Birungi said.

They paid for one motorcyclist each to take them to the uncle’s home, and upon reaching a swamp the one carrying Sajabi said he had run out of fuel, she said.

“Immediately two motorcycles arrived carrying three men each.  They started beating my husband and then dragged him to a nearby anthill, dug into it and pushed his head inside, and he breathed his last.”

“What you have witnessed happening to your husband today is for the disobedience of your husband not heeding the advice given by the family that he should return to Islam, since Islam cannot tolerate infidels,” one of the assailants told her, Birungi said.

Barnabas Fund, 19 August 2021 (excerpts)

Qiqihar, the second largest city in China’s Heilongjiang province, on 9 August joined an increasing number of cities, districts, and county governments to offer cash rewards to anyone who reports to the authorities on “illegal religious activities”.

Whistle-blowers could pocket between 500 yuan (£56, $77, €65) and 1,000 yuan (£112, $154, €132) for informing on private house gatherings, preaching, the distribution of printed religious works, audio-visual products outside churches, unqualified religious personnel, and illicit foreign infiltration.

Residents of Qiqihar are being told the new rewards scheme will ensure a “harmonious” religious landscape

The measures aim to “strengthen the control of illegal religious activities in the district and prevent any Covid-19 cluster resulting from religious gatherings”, according to a statement from the Work Department of Qiqihar.

The goal was to mobilise the public to help ensure a “harmonious and stable religious landscape”. Reports could be made through phone calls, emails, and letters.

Barnabas Fund, 20 August 2021 (excerpts)

Romania celebrated a national day to commemorate Christian martyrs and victims of violence on 16 August.

The date was selected to coincide with commemoration of Constantin Brâncoveanu, Prince of Wallachia, who was captured and tortured by the Ottomans in 1714. Along with his four sons, he was martyred when he refused to renounce his faith in Christ on 16 August that year.

This National Day seeks to present the importance of Christianity in Romania’s history and the continued widespread persecution of Christians around the world to the general public, especially young people.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2018 revealed Romania to be the most religious nation in Europe, based on four factors: the importance people ascribe to religion in their lives, regular attendance of religious services, frequency of personal prayer, and certainty of belief in God.

Christians are harassed in more countries than the followers of any other religion (145 according to a 2020 study, also by the Pew Research Center).

Church in Chains, 10 August 2021 (excerpts)

On 3 August Christian convert Naser Gol-Tapeh celebrated his 60th birthday behind bars. Naser, in poor health, has been serving a ten-year prison sentence for “acting against national security through the formation and establishment of an illegal church organisation in his home” since January 2018.  His three appeals for a retrial have been denied, and his appeal for parole after serving over one third of his sentence has also been denied.

Naser recently spoke in an audio message from prison in which he reflected on persecution, forgiveness, and justice. He said he bore no grudge against those who sent him to prison and asks for God’s forgiveness and blessing upon them.

Naser also said that it is quite clear to him that he is being imprisoned because he is a follower of Jesus. He mentioned that Jesus forewarned his followers about persecution and stated in John 15:19, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”