International Christian Concern, June 14, 2022

War erupted in the South Caucasus on 27 September 2020 when Azerbaijan and Turkey launched a joint military operation named Operation Iron Fist into the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian: Artsakh).  A truce was brokered by Russia 44 days later which ceded significant parts of Karabakh to Azerbaijan.

During those forty-four days, Azeri and Turkish-paid Syrian mercenaries published multiple accounts and footage demonstrating possible war crimes against the local community.  Following the truce, Turkey entered a peacekeeping role alongside Russia.  Nevertheless, Turkey demonstrates biased support to Azerbaijan, who persists in violating the truce’s terms and the basic principles of human rights.

The dynamics of this conflict are deeply complex but have strong religious freedom implications impacting the future of Karabakh’s local community.  The strategic planning by Turkey and Azerbaijan show an intent of mass extermination, thereby genocide, of Karabakh’s Armenian residents because of their combined faith and ethnic identity.

These identities are important to the Pan-Turkic ideology driving Azerbaijan and Turkey’s activities in Karabakh.  This ideology is hidden behind highly symbolic language.  Tactics used to promote this ideology include erasing Christianity from the historical memory of Karabakh, dehumanizing local residents, dismantling their identity, and using a variety of impression management manoeuvres to limit the ability of international observers to name this war for what it is: genocide.

Church in Chains, 26 May 2022 (excerpts)

Christians from Britain and elsewhere joined together for an online vigil to mark the 20th anniversary of the closure of churches by the Eritrean government in May 2002.

The decision to close all churches – apart from the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches – marked the beginning of the persecution of Christians in Eritrea which has continued ever since.

Church in Chains has joined with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Eritrean Orthodox Church in the UK, Human Rights Concern-Eritrea and Release Eritrea in an annual vigil outside the Eritrean Embassy in London since 2005.  The event moved online in 2020 (due to Covid-19).

The Church in Chains rep led the event and introduced participants. An Eritrean pastor spoke about the churches in Eritrea while an Eritrean human rights activist spoke about Christian prisoners including his own pastor, Dr Kiflu Gebremeskel.  There are currently an estimated 200 known Christian prisoners in Eritrea.

The Human Rights Concern-Eritrea rep spoke about the desperate suffering of Eritrean refugees including victims of trafficking while the Christian Solidarity Worldwide rep spoke about the Tigray crisis in neighbouring Ethiopia (in which Eritrean army conscripts are fighting). Each topic was followed by prayer.

During the vigil, a joint letter from the five organisations to the Eritrean Embassy in London calling for the unconditional release of every prisoner of conscience was posted to the embassy’s Facebook page and vigil participants were encouraged to do likewise.

Voice of the Martyrs, May 26, 2022 (excerpts)

After putting her trust in Jesus, Sumi received a New Testament.  Her younger brother noticed it and told their Hindu father, who shouted at Sumi and threatened her with a knife.  He told her to leave her Christian faith or leave his house. 

When Sumi left, her father burned her clothes, Bible and other Christian literature.  Her pastor let her stay at the church for 15 days before she returned home.  Eventually, her father and other villagers emotionally abused her for leaving Hinduism. 

The persecution kept Sumi from completing high school.  Today, 21-year-old Sumi works odd jobs in Kathmandu and attends church in a nearby city.  Pray for her to form strong relationships with other believers and make peace with her father and other family members.

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. 

There is a small, visible Christian community in Nepal, but believers experience opposition from extremists among the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Marxist groups.  Christians face harassment and beatings from local Hindu nationalists who envision Nepal becoming a “pure” Hindu nation.

Voice of the Martyrs, May 26, 2022 (excerpts)

Christians in Oaxaca state recently celebrated baptism to proclaim their faith publicly despite ongoing opposition from their community.  In the past few years, members of the community have openly opposed the Christians, making false accusations against them, calling them thieves, destroying their homes and shooting at them randomly.

Because of this hostility, the Christians planned a baptism celebration, expecting members of the community to oppose or prevent the gathering.

However, the Christians held the service publicly and the pastor preached the gospel openly, baptizing many new believers in obedience to God’s Word without opposition from the community.

Praise God for the believers’ bold obedience in the midst of a hostile community.  Pray that their faithful witness will lead others in their community to faith in Christ.

Specific areas within southern Mexico have a high concentration of indigenous minority groups.  These minority communities, which maintain a separate identity and language, are systematically oppressed by local authorities.

Christians among them are persecuted by Marxist and animist groups as well as village leaders.

These communities are remotely located and difficult to reach.  Despite persecution, the number of Christians has continued to grow in these areas.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide – 13 May 2022 (excerpts)

CSW condemns the murder of Deborah Yakubu, a student in Sokoto state, northwest Nigeria, who was lynched on 12 May, following an unproven blasphemy allegation.

Ms Yakubu was a Level 200 Home Economics student and a member of the Evangelical Church in her home state of Niger.  She was accused of blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed in a WhatsApp group chat, where she reportedly expressed frustration at the discrimination experienced by Christian students.  There are also unconfirmed reports that she had rejected the advances of a Muslim student, who later made the allegation.

Video footage circulating on social media shows an unconscious and bloodied Ms Yakubu being stoned, beaten, and then immolated in a pile of tyres by a predominantly male mob who chanted “Allahu Akbar,” and continued to stone her and fuel the flames.  In a video, a young man claims responsibility for Ms Yakubu’s murder, which he describes as good and justified.  The college authorities had hidden Ms Yakubu in the security room following mounting threats to her life.  However, her killers had dragged her out and burnt the building after killing her.

The Sultanate Council of Sokoto state “condemned the incident in its entirety” and “urged the security agencies to bring perpetrators of this unjustifiable incident to justice.”  The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Mathew Kukah also condemned the murder “This matter must be treated as a criminal act and the law must take its course.”

Forum 18 – 13 May 2022 (excerpts)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in even stricter censorship and control of Russian religious communities – by newly created offences of “discrediting the Armed Forces” or “disseminating false information” about them, or pressure not to condemn war.

Lutheran Archbishop Dietrich Brauer, who has left Russia for Germany, said that, at the start of the war, President Vladimir Putin’s administration made “a clear demand” of religious leaders to speak out in favour of the invasion.

A pastor in a different Protestant church described how FSB security service officers visited clergy to warn them not to say anything critical in sermons or on social media.

Endorsing the invasion, however, the Russian Orthodox leader, Patriarch Kirill holds that Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus all constitute a single spiritual and cultural space in opposition to the liberal and secular West.

On 6 March, he claimed that Russia was protecting the Donbas from outside pressure to abide by liberal values, especially as expressed in gay pride parades, arguing that this “indicates that we have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance”.

Despite this official support for the war, some Patriarchate priests have resigned from their jobs after opposition to the war brought them into conflict with their dioceses.

Church in Chains – 5 May 2022 (excerpts)

A Baptist couple could face 100 lashes after being charged with “adultery” because a Sharia court had annulled their marriage due to the husband’s conversion to Christianity.

Hamouda (34) and Nada (25) were Muslims when married in 2016, but when Hamouda became a Christian in 2018, Nada’s family won a Sharia court decision to annul the marriage.  Apostasy was then punishable by death, though now decriminalised in 2020 after Islamist president Omar al-Bashir was ousted in 2019.

In 2021, Nada also converted to Christianity and returned to Hamouda with their two children, whereupon her brother accused them of adultery.

Police arrested the couple in August 2021.  They were charged under Sudan’s 1991 criminal law, based on the Sharia court’s annulment of their marriage.  Article 146 calls for a sentence of flogging and expulsion from the area in the case of adultery by an unmarried person, and death by stoning if the person is married.

They were detained for 4 days before being released on bail.  Their next hearing is for 12 May.

Their lawyer stated, “I told the court that the marriage is legal.”  He added that the couple is facing growing threats from hard-line Muslims, in particular Nada’s brother.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 29 April 2022 (excerpts)

16 Protestant Christian families, comprising 32 adults, attend a church in Chiapas State, Mexico and belong to the Tzeltal indigenous group.  They are being forced to pay an illegal fine for a 4^th consecutive year as a consequence of their refusal to participate in an upcoming syncretic Roman Catholic festival, the Santa Cruz Festival, referred to locally as ‘Convivio de Agua’, which is held 3 May.

The first fine was issued in 2016, and since 2019 they have been issued annually to those who do not participate.  Six of the families in the community who declined to participate in the festival have been forced to pay an illegal fine of approximately GBP £12 or have their water supply cut off until they were able to pay it.  In some years, members of the religious minority community have been without access to water for five months, until they were able to gather the money to pay the fine.

Pastor Miguel Gómez Pérez confirmed that the local authorities have a list at the police station with the names of every member of the Presbyterian church, and that they have visited each individual family to request the payment of the fine.  He confirmed that the funds collected through the fines will be used to purchase supplies for the celebration of the festival, including alcoholic beverages.

International Christian Concern, 29 April 2022 (excerpts)

A Christian website in China with more than 20 years of history has ceased to exist recently amid the ongoing crackdown against Christianity in cyberspace.

On April 12, “Jona(h) Home” published a notice on its website, which reads “Due to reasons known to everyone, from now on our site can no longer serve brothers and sisters in Christ.  Thanks to all for your company and support in the past 21 years!”

It continues, “The disappearance of a website is merely a disappearance of a website, it does not carry any meaning.  Need not to be concerned, and just keep walking.”

While no one dared to mention the crackdown of the government, some responded, “[The closure] has nothing to do with your laptop.  You should know the reason.”

On March 1, the Chinese government officially placed a ban on unauthorized online religious activities.  Even before the ban was put in place, Bible Apps and many Christian WeChat accounts were shut down in China.

Father Francis Liu from the Chinese Christian fellowship told Radio Free Asia, “I feel sad from the bottom of my heart about the closure of such a website.  Certainly, this is the most direct result of how China is currently persecuting and oppressing religious freedom.”

Voice of the Martyrs, 28 April 2022

On February 13, a Christian named Nin died, leaving behind two daughters, Neung and Nom, and a son, Ram.  Since 2009, the three teenagers also lost their mother, a sister and their grandmother, all of whom were believers.

After Nin’s death, his older brother and sister-in-law blamed the deaths on the family’s belief in God.  They offered to care for the teens only if they rejected Christ.

The teens refused, saying they could never reject Jesus.  Angered by their decision, the uncle said he wouldn’t care for them.  Nom, 16, and Ram, 13, moved in with their pastor’s family.

Neung has graduated high school and lives on her own.

Pray for the 3 teenagers to remain firm in their faith and ask God to provide for their needs.  Pray the Holy Spirit convicts their uncle and aunt and leads them to Christ.

The Communist government, in conjunction with Buddhist monks, persecutes Christians, with the exception of the government-controlled Lao Evangelical Church.

Poverty, lack of infrastructure and mountainous terrain make evangelistic outreach challenging.  Thanks to bold evangelists, churches continue to grow even as they experience ongoing persecution.