Morning Star News, February 8, 2023 (excerpts)

A Christian apologist whose comparisons of Christianity with Islam were widely disseminated on his YouTube channel has disappeared since his arrest in December.

The apologist, a Coptic Orthodox Christian known for debates with Muslim converts from Christianity, was subsequently transferred to Surabaya for interrogation. He is known for his widely followed YouTube channel and his books on Islamic and Christian doctrines.  His knowledge of Arabic has enabled him to make significant use of Islamic resources.

Prior to his arrest, 4 police officers visited his house on Dec. 6 to question him about episode 248 of his YouTube channel, which officers said offended Muslims and Islam.

The video, which first appeared on Feb. 23, 2022, described how Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, visited his adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah and his wife Zaynab, who later became one of Muhammad’s wives.

Finding no mistakes and no other elements that violated Islam doctrines, a team of 29 police officers then stormed his house later that same day on Dec. 6.

Gratia Pello and his wife happened to have left the house but he was arrested upon his return at 11 p.m.  He is still presumably waiting for trial.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 10 Feb 2023 (excerpts)

Roman Catholic priests and lay leaders, and a Protestant pastor were included in a group of political prisoners sent from Nicaragua to the United States this week. 

The Nicaraguan government announced that 222 prisoners had been removed from prison and put on flights to the United States on the morning of 9 February.  Family members were reportedly not informed in advance of the move.  President Daniel Ortega subsequently declared that all 222 of those released are no longer Nicaraguans and have been stripped of their citizenship.

Bishop Álvarez Lagos was not among those listed and had refused to leave Nicaragua, despite government pressure.  President Ortega later announced that the he has been transferred from house arrest to prison. 

Protestant Pastor Wilber Alberto Pérez was also among the group sent to the US.  He was arbitrarily detained on 15 December 2020 for promoting the ‘Christmas without Political Prisoners’ campaign.  In March 2021, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and was held in solitary confinement in a ‘punishment cell’ with no natural light.

The choice reportedly offered to these individuals of remaining in prison in inhumane conditions or going into forced exile is one no one should ever be forced to make.

Joshua Project, 10 January 2023 (excerpts)

The Lao Phuan people once had their own kingdom in Laos.  In the 19^th century the Siamese military drove them to central Thailand where they became slaves.   The Lao Phuan people live mainly in Laos and Thailand today, though there are also those who live in Cambodia.

Like most peoples in Cambodia and Laos, the Lao Phuan are rice farmers.  They also raise silk worms which produce thread for the fine garments which they either wear or sell.  On a social level, the Lao Phuan people try hard to maintain their traditions.

The Lao Phuan people consider themselves to be devout Buddhists, but they are actually more devoted to their animistic practices.  Their form of Buddhism is corrupted by their ancient religious practices.  The Lao Phuan people need to be released from fear of wicked spirits.

Pray for spiritual openness among the Lao Phuan people of Cambodia and Laos, for them to have the chance to hear the gospel in a culturally appropriate way, and for a disciple making movement among this people group to transform their communities in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Voice of the Martyrs, 5 January 2023

Bimala Thokar came to faith in Christ in 2021 through the witness of her daughter. The Buddhist people of their Nepalese village disapproved of Bimala and her family becoming Christians and sharing the gospel with others. Local Buddhist monks called the police to accuse Bimala of “evil practices” and illegally spreading the Christian religion.

At the police station, Bimala answered the charges by explaining her Christian faith.  The police officer in charge identified himself as Christian and encouraged Bimala in her faith. No charges were filed.  Instead, villagers who had previously shunned Bimala and verbally abused her slowly began to accept her and ask her to pray with them.  Bimala remains strong in her faith and desires that a fellowship of Christians would be started in her village.

The government of Nepal is taking an increasingly strong stand against religious conversion.  Despite the 2015 constitution that guaranteed religious freedom, Parliament passed a bill in 2017 criminalizing conversion to Christianity.  Christian communities are small, but they boldly witness for Christ despite harassment and risk.

Families, communities, Marxist groups and Hindu groups pressure Christians, who also experience some government interference.  Muslims and Buddhists also persecute Christians, especially in response to evangelism and conversions in rural areas.

Morning Star News, 2 January 2023 (excerpts)

One Christian was killed and 53 were kidnapped on Dec. 25 in southern Kaduna state, Nigeria after more than 40 Christians were slain in the week leading up to Christmas.

Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists on Dec. 25 attacked Angwan Aku village in Kajuru County, Kaduna state, at about 10 a.m., area resident James Akawu said.

“Church worship service was about to commence when the attackers arrived at the village riding on motorbikes and shooting sporadically.  They killed one Christian and kidnapped 53 other Christians who are still being held captive.”

In Kaura County, residents said herdsmen and other terrorists killed 40 Christians in Mallagum on Dec. 18 and another three Christians in Kagoro on Dec. 23.

“We’re being attacked again by terrorists.  There are gunshots everywhere again this night,” Kagoro town resident Jay Awan told Morning Star News in a Dec. 23 text message.  “This is worse. Please we need help.”

Barnabas Fund, 5 December 2022 (excerpts)

A 7-year-old child was one of three people killed when the Myanmar military launched a land and air attack on Mon Hla, a historic Christian village in Myanmar’s Sagaing Region.

More than 200 troops were involved in the assault on 23 November in which a 40-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man also died.

Over 200 of the village’s 700 buildings, including a church and a Christian school, were destroyed after being engulfed by fires started by the soldiers.

Barnabas has provided food and practical aid for thousands of Myanmar Christians driven from their homes by military attacks

Mon Hla is home to 3,000 mostly Christian residents.  It is one the region’s historic Bayingyi villages where inhabitants are descended from Christians who settled in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Another Bayingyi village, Chaung Yoe, has been subjected to at least three attacks by the military.  In the last assault on the community, in May 2022, the majority of the village’s 350 houses were razed, forcing hundreds to flee.

In June 2021 hundreds of homes were razed by the military in a second attack on the Bayingyi village of Chan Thar.

The military, which seized power in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in February 2021, has for many years persecuted Myanmar’s Christian minority, estimated to make up 6.2% of the population.

Morning Star News, 19 December 2022 (excerpts)

Muslim extremists in central Uganda lured a Christian teacher to his home by forcing his wife to call and tell him she was ill, then the intruders beat him and his son.

Abdu Muyinga and his adult son are nursing injuries after Muslims upset with their conversion to Christianity beat them on December 10.

“We were attacked and beaten because of leaving Islam, as the Islamic law instructs Muslims to kill anyone who leaves Islam,” Muyinga said.

He and his son left their home at about 8 p.m. for an all-night prayer vigil.  Seven Muslim extremists went to his home at about 10 p.m. and, not finding them there, learned from his wife that they had gone to the prayer vigil.

“They forced her to make a telephone call indicating that she was seriously ill,” Muyinga told Morning Star News.

As they hurried home, they saw three men standing in the middle of the road in white clothes. At first Muyinga thought that they were traffic police.

“I stopped, and one hit me with a stick on my shoulder, the back, the head and left leg, and I fell unconscious,” he said.  The attackers left us half-dead and half-naked.”

“After converting to Christianity, the story about our conversion circulated countrywide, and five days later, I started receiving threatening messages.”The attack was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda.

Voice of the Martyrs, 10 November 2022 (excerpts)

“The crisis in Afghanistan is not over,” said one Afghan Christian leader recently.  Afghan believers who have fled Taliban rule mostly live in refugee camps in nearby nations.  With little to do, many feel isolated and depressed.  

Christians who have stayed request prayers for protection and that God will raise up new leaders within the country to help disciple young believers and those who have recently come to faith, mostly through online ministry efforts.  With winter approaching, as many as 18 million people are reported to face acute food insecurity.

The good news of Christ reached Afghanistan by the second century, but today there are no church buildings.  Cultural and religious opposition remain great challenges for all missions efforts in this Central Asian nation.  And sadly, most Afghans have never heard the gospel, do not know a Christian and have been indoctrinated to follow Muhammad’s teachings without question.  

Radical Islam and violent tribal political activity make the nation a difficult and dangerous place for Christians to practice their faith.  But there is a special unity among Christians labouring for the gospel in Afghanistan.  Indigenous, near-culture and expatriate believers are taking risks and using every opportunity to help believers grow in faith and connect with local house churches.  

While church growth has been slow among the more than 40 unique people groups, significant Christian growth has occurred among the Hazara people, and members of other people groups are also coming to know Christ.

International Christian Concern, November 30, 2022 (excerpts)

Nine Christian pastors were arrested and jailed on false charges of conversion activities in Azamgarh, in the North Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on Monday. 

The pastors and a recently married Christian couple were arrested by police at a wedding reception. Radical Hindu nationalists pressured the police to act against the Christians. 

Witnesses told how the pastor of an Assemblies of God Church hosted a wedding reception at his house for his daughter and son-in-law.  During the reception, police raided the home and confiscated Bibles and other Christian items, alleging that the gathering was a conversion program.  The pastor explained that it was purely a wedding reception for his daughter, but police ignored his pleas and arrested the pastors and the newly wedded couple. 

“These days are very challenging days in our state,” a Christian leader from Uttar Pradesh said.  “More than 200 churches were shut down in the last few months, and 52 pastors and Christians are reeling in the prisons across the state of Uttar Pradesh.”  

Another Christian leader said, “Christians are living under the fear of being targeted and attacked for no reason, and police just need a complaint for them to act and send them to jail under the anti-conversion law.”

The United Christian Forum (UCF) recently released a report which said that violence against Indian Christians is at an all-time high.  This year saw the highest spike in incidents across India.  Uttar Pradesh was the most egregious, with 149 attacks against Christians.

Aid to the Church in Need, November 22, 2022 (excerpts)

Fears are growing that a priest who disappeared in Mali has been abducted by Islamist militants.  German missionary priest Father Hans-Joachim Lohre went missing on Sunday (20th November) after celebrating Mass at a convent in Bamako, the country’s capital.

Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) was told by the Missionaries of Africa – known as the White Fathers – that everything points to him having been kidnapped.

Father Lohre’s car was found abandoned and a cross which he always carried with him was lying on the ground.

The priest, who worked in Mali for more than 30 years, before his disappearance, told ACN that missionaries faced potential danger from Mali’s growing Islamist militant groups.  He said: “We are an easy target, but we have a mission”, adding “we have been told that the jihadists are watching us.  The jihadists come in groups, on motorcycles, and the local communities have to make deals with them. They are forbidden from ringing church bells and drinking alcohol, and women are forced to wear the veil.”

But he stressed that concerns about his personal safety did not keep him from continuing his ministry in Mali.

Extremist groups have overrun swathes of central Mali, imposing Shari‘a in the areas under their control.

“Therefore, it is crucial that we foster good relations with the Muslims around us.  We provide Christians with deep knowledge about Islam, so that when they return to their communities, they can help to build bridges and make contact with the surrounding mosques.”