Morning Star News, 23 October 2020

Protests against police brutality in Nigeria that grew into generalized unrest over poor government took on a religious dimension this week with attacks on Christians and church buildings.

Following peaceful protests that began earlier this month against torture and killings by Special Anti­Robbery Squad forces, Christian leaders in Plateau, Kano and Kogi states led prayer walks of thousands of Christians in appeals for peace.

Suspected Muslim agitators took advantage of the chaos to attack churches, sources said. In Kogi state, following a prayer walk, Christians praying inside the Dunamis Christian Centre were attacked by suspected Muslim antagonists.

Friday Adah told Morning Star News by text message. “A peaceful prayer walk seeking God’s help for our country, Nigeria, for God to restore peace and love, was suddenly met with undue force as Christians were beaten and shot at with guns by Muslim mobs.”

Also on October 19 near Jos, suspected Muslim agitators opposing church prayer walks damaged the building of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Bukuru.

Morning Star News, October 6, 2020

After beating and parading Pastor Raj Singh along with four other Christians in eastern India, Hindu extremists were tonsuring them to further ridicule them when one cut the pastor’s head.

“While shaving my head, the razor cut my skull, and blood oozed out,” Pastor Singh said of the Sept. 16 attack in Jharkhand state. “A man standing nearby pointed out the cut and asked the man shaving my head to be careful, to which he promptly answered back saying, ‘This Christian should be grateful that I am only using the razor on his head and not on his neck.’”

After shaving their heads, the mob tied garlands of old shoes and slippers around their necks and continued parading them from one area of Bherikudar village, in Simdega District, to another. The Hindu extremists told them to chant “Jai Shri Ram [Victory to god Ram]” and, when the Christians did not comply, beat them with wooden sticks, he said.

“Some of us chanted, to escape the beating from time to time,” Pastor Singh said. “Whoever did not chant was immediately beaten by sticks. They also had long wooden handles of large iron picks with which they hit us.”

World Watch Monitor, October 6, 2020

A Swiss missionary – kidnapped from Timbuktu in northern Mali in January 2016 – was killed only weeks before other hostages were freed by Islamist extremists, in an apparent prisoner-hostage swap negotiated by the new transitional government in Mali.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry expressed its sorrow that Beatrice Stockli, a single woman in her late forties, was “apparently killed by kidnappers of the Islamist terrorist organization Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslim (JNIM) about a month ago”.

The Swiss authorities say they will do all they can to find out details of exactly how she died, and to return her body, or her remains, to her family.

The missionary settled in Timbuktu in 2000, working for a Swiss church, before starting work alone, unaffiliated with any church.

She had led an austere life in a popular district of Timbuktu – but known to be frequented by armed jihadist groups – and used to sell flowers and hand out Christian material.

She was taken from her home before dawn on 8 Jan. 2016 by armed men in four pickup trucks, according to confidential sources.

International Christian Concern, October 6, 2020

The Lahore High Court has acquitted Sawan Masih, a Christian man sentenced to death under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws. Masih was convicted in March 2014, just over a year after he allegedly committed blasphemy.

On March 8, 2013, Sawan Masih was accused by his Muslim friend, Muhammad Shahid, of insulting the Prophet Muhammad during a conversation on March 7. According to Shahid, Masih said, “My Jesus is genuine. He is the Son of Allah. He will return while your Prophet is false. My Jesus is true and will give salvation.” The incident allegedly took place in the primarily Christian neighbourhood of Joseph Colony, located in Lahore.

The next day, March 9, local mosques recounted the accusation against Masih over their PA systems, inciting mob violence. A mob of more than 3,000 enraged Muslims attacked Joseph Colony, looting and burning Christian homes, shops, and at least two churches. Amid the violence, Masih was handed over to the police.

On March 27, 2014, he was sentenced to death in a trial held in the Lahore Camp Jail due to security concerns.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the Lahore High Court decided that the prosecution had failed to establish that Masih had committed blasphemy. The court went on to acquit Masih, reversing his death sentence, and ordered his release.

Middle East Concern, September 29, 2020

Iranian Christians are thankful that a new charge against convert Ebrahim Firouzi has been rejected through lack of evidence and the case closed.

In 2013, Ebrahim was arrested and sentenced to 1 year in prison and 2 years of internal exile for “propaganda against the regime by establishing and organising Christian gatherings” and “having contacts with anti-revolutionary networks outside Iran.”

In March 2015 he was retried and sentenced to an additional 5 years in prison on charges of “acting against national security by gathering and collusion.”

In November 2019, after completing the consecutive prison sentences, Ebrahim started serving the 2-year period of exile near the border with Pakistan. On 12 March he was notified that his exile had been extended by 8 months for violating its terms, and an additional 3 months for failing to appear for a daily signing in.

On, 27 September, Ebrahim had to appear before the prosecutor in Rask to answer a charge of “propaganda against the state,” carrying a prison sentence of 3 to 12 months. Thankfully, on 28 September, the prosecutor closed the case against him for lack of evidence.

Morning Star News, September 22, 2020

A church elder was shot as his daughters were kidnapped in northwest Nigeria on Friday, Sept. 18.

Hassana and Hussaina Garba, teenaged Christian twin sisters, were kidnapped from their home in northwest Nigeria’s Katsina state. The kidnappers shot their father, Ibrahim Garba, in the stomach.

Kidnappings by various criminal elements have become rampant in Katsina state the past few years, with the high number committed by predominantly Muslim Fulanis.

Kwakware area resident Charles Yahaya said “Testimonies and exhibits at the crime scene show that the kidnappers were very organized, very informed on their target and heavily armed.  Christian girls in northern Nigeria are forcefully converted to Islam and married off, thereby becoming sex slaves.”

Another teenaged Christian girl, the only daughter of a widow, was kidnapped in Kaduna state on August 30 and forced to convert to Islam.

Her mother reported the disappearance to Local Government Area police.  But the police insisted on her unlawful detention to achieve the wish of her abductors to Islamize the young Christian girl.

After much prayer and the involvement of well-meaning Nigerians, the girl was released back to her mother.

According to a post from Steadfast Global on 2nd October, “Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) are reporting that twins Hassanna & Hussaina Garba were released on 21 September. We thank God and pray for their recovery and also for others affected by the attack that led to their abduction on 18 September. “