Barnabas Fund, 15 February 2021

Prosecutors in Muslim-majority Somaliland were granted extra time on 10 February to detain in custody a Christian couple and their new-born baby and two other Christian women on suspicion of “spreading Christianity”.

Somaliland’s small Christian community is feeling “very vulnerable” following the arrests of five Christians by police in the capital Hargeisa

On 21 January, police from the capital Hargeisa arrested and detained in custody Mohamed and Hamdi with their baby, as well as Aster, an Ethiopian woman.

Their lawyer said that on his initial visit they all appeared in good health and were being well treated. However, he has since been denied access, despite his verbal complaint and subsequent assurances from the public prosecutor’s office.

Many believers are reported to have fled abroad after the arrest in September 2020 of a Christian couple detained for being “apostates and evangelists spreading Christianity”. The couple, who have three children, were unexpectedly released and deported two months later after European government representatives raised the case with the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Islam is the official religion of Somaliland, which declared independence from Somalia in 1991. Its constitution states that individuals have the right to freedom of belief. However, the constitution also prohibits Muslims from converting to another religion.

Morning Star News, 28 January 2021

Muslim villagers on Sunday attacked the wife and children of a pastor in eastern Uganda who is still receiving hospital treatment for a previous assault.

Previously a group of area Muslims beat Pastor Nabwana with sticks and a blunt object on his head, back, stomach and chest.

A church leader visited Naura, wife of Pastor Nabwana, and her family at their thatched-roof dwelling on January 22. He said they need protection as well as financial assistance.

So far the church has paid medical bills of about $1,000 for the couple, and the church leader said further medical bills for them will amount to about $950.

Naura had been hospitalized for five days after the previous attack, incited by mosque leaders announcing that a local imam had left Islam for Christianity. A group of Muslims beat her and Pastor Nabwana and demolished parts of their church building.

The former imam, whose name is withheld for security reasons, put his faith in Christ on Dec. 5 and on Dec 27 joined the church worship. The new Christian was given the opportunity to share the journey of how he came to faith in Christ, and when mosque leaders heard the celebration, they announced the apostasy.

The Voice of the Martyrs, 28 January 2021

A group of Turkish believers who produce Christian literature ask for prayer as they operate in Turkey’s tense climate for believers. After nine years of publishing a theological magazine, “we are still able to do our job in this dark atmosphere,” they wrote.

A reader, Tolga, wrote to tell the group the difference the magazine made in his life. Tolga lived a life of crime and drugs growing up and was constantly in and out of jail. In prison, he heard about “missionaries” who spy on Turkish people, and it made him curious. He covered his face and snuck into a church to get a Bible.

In 2018, he subscribed to the Christian magazine to help him understand the Christian faith more fully; now he belongs to Christ and is saved.

The believers who create the Christian magazine ask for prayer that they will be able to continue producing it.

They also plan to produce content for the growing number of those living in Turkey who speak Persian. “Pray that the hearts of the people we reach would be open to the Lord,” they wrote. “Our aim is only to serve the gospel.”

Morning Star News, 29 January 2021

Police in Pakistan who had dismissed accusations of blasphemy against a Christian nurse who was attacked by hospital personnel registered a case against her today after pressure from an Islamist mob.

Staff members of the hospital in Karachi slapped, beat and locked nurse Tabeeta Nazir Gill, 42, in a room after baselessly accusing her of blaspheming Islam.

Police had questioned and released Nazir Gill after concluding that the accusations were false, but a Muslim mob besieged the police station today after the complainant, Saba Wasi, called on Muslim leaders to mobilize them.

Wasi alleges in the complaint that Nazir Gill said that only Jesus is the true Saviour and that Muhammad has no relevance.

“Fortunately, someone called the police, and they promptly arrived on the scene and saved her life,” said Pastor Eric Sahotra, who was among the first to reach the police station.

Barnabas Fund, January 5, 2021 

Collusion between communist authorities in North Korea and neighbouring China over the arrest, punishment and forced repatriation of Christians has been described by exiles interviewed by Korea Future Initiative (KFI).

Investigators documented the torture and abuse of North Koreans in China before they were deported back to their home country, further tortured, and sent to brutal “re-education” camps for the “crime” of their Christian faith.

The KFI report describes a North Korean Christian being abducted in China by 3 Chinese men and a North Korean woman and driven to the Chinese border on the Amnok River. The Christian was bundled into a boat by at least 4 waiting North Korean security agents and taken across the river to North Korea for interrogation.  Interrogators used information sourced from informants in China.

Il-lyong Ju, an exiled human rights advocate, wrote that the “cruel actions” of those in North Korea who persecute Christians must be prevented. He added, “North Korean officials, whose crimes evoke thoughts of Auschwitz, must be identified and held accountable. And we must not forget the testimonies of the survivors in this report who have overpowered death in North Korea.”

Barnabas Fund, 5 January 2021 

At least 24 people were killed, over 20 abducted, a church burnt and a pastor kidnapped by jihadi militants during two attacks on Christmas Eve in Nigeria.

On 24 December, armed militants raided the mainly Christian village of Pemi in Borno State, firing on villagers, killing eleven people, and setting fire to buildings.

Jihadists abducted at least 20 Christians in the region and singled out five to be lined up and shot in a second Christmas Eve attack in Adamawa State. In an online video released by the militants showing the killings, the murders are reportedly referred to as a “Christmas present”.

Many of the villagers fled during the attacks, and some are still missing at the time of writing.  State authorities had warned of an increased risk of attacks during the Christmas period.

The breakaway Islamist terror group, ISWAP, is led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi and split from Boko Haram in 2015, partly due to the extreme brutality of Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau, and is active in north-east Nigeria.

Morning Star News, January 10, 2021

Police in Lahore, Pakistan on January 4 recovered the bodies of two Christian sisters whose Muslim supervisors pressured them to convert to Islam before killing them.

Mushtaq Masih said that police informed him on Jan. 4 that officers had found the decomposed bodies of his 28-year-old wife, Sajida Mushtaq, a mother of four,  and her sister, Abida Qaiser, bound and bundled into sacks in an area drainage ditch. They had been missing since Nov. 26.

“My wife often complained of harassment by her supervisors, but she used to tell me that she was handling the situation well,” Masih told Morning Star News.

The investigating officer of the case, Iftikhar Hussain, said that officers took Mumtaz and Butt into custody.

“During interrogation, Naeem confessed that they had abducted the sisters, and after keeping them hostage for a few days for satisfying their lust, had slit their throats, and thrown their bodies into the drain,” Hussain told Morning Star News.

Punjab Province Minister for Minorities and Human Rights Ejaz Alam Augustine said that he had visited the aggrieved families.

“No words are enough to condemn the barbarity meted out to the two innocent women,” he said, adding that he had directed police to ensure that the criminals and all who facilitated the crime are punished.

Morning Star News, December 8, 2020 

Representatives of 8 village councils in central India first summoned a new Christian to give him an ultimatum in October when they interrupted a church service on Oct. 18 asking for Sattar Singh Markam.

At the joint meeting in Chhattisgarh state’s Gariaband District, they told Markam to renounce Christ or “leave with your Christian faith and never come back.”

Markham, who was suffering three epileptic seizures a day before he put his faith in Christ 12 years ago, told them the Lord had healed him and given him life and that he would never turn away from his Christian faith.

A week later, on Oct. 25, a tribal mob of about 300 people incited by radical Hindus attacked his house after his church, which meets there, had finished worship.

Markam told them how he was miraculously healed through Christ. They scoffed at him and began slapping and pushing him, he said. Markam fell to the ground, and the mob beat and kicked him.  The mob left after beating him.

The next day he filed a complaint with the police station for criminal intimidation, destruction, damage, or defilement of a place of worship, but police have made no arrests.

Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, said systematic, coordinated attacks on area tribal Christians began in the last six months.

“Outsiders and nontribal people are the ones instigating these attacks,” he said. “There is absolute political silence on them, and the inaction of the police is the only answer we get.”

30 Congolese Christians murdered

Barnabas Fund, 4 December 2020

At least 30 Christians were killed, and ten young women and girls raped, in a string of attacks on five villages in North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo by the extremist rebel group, The Allied Democratic Forces, between 20 November and 3 December.

Terrified Christians flooded into the streets as the jihadists surrounded churches in each of the five villages armed with guns, machetes, clubs, swords, and axes.

A Christian survivor, who witnessed an attack on his village in the early hours of 22 November, explained that through the vent in the latrine, where he was hiding, he could see the militants murder his wife and three children.

In Mayitike, the worst hit of the villages, a pastor lost all five members of his family in a militia attack. He said that the militants had tried to force villagers to convert to Islam before killing them. “They also tried to force my wife and our four children to convert to Islam, but when they refused to convert, they shot my wife in the head while our four children were cut into pieces with a sword,” said the pastor.

Regional security officers confirmed reports that the jihadists targeted Christians and killed those who refused to convert to Islam.

International Christian Concern, December 7, 2020 

Of 10 young Christian students interviewed about their experiences in school, 6 said that nothing was taught about Christian theology and 4 said that hearsay is taught about Christian theology. The Christian history of Turkey is ignored, and historic persecution of Christians is reframed as defending Turkey … birthing a type of nationalism hostile towards anything associated with Christianity.

One student said, “I became a Christian and immediately felt like I betrayed my country. During the independent war, we fought against lots of countries and some bishops blessed the Turks’ enemies. That’s why people started to hate Christianity and Christians and believe that if you aren’t Muslim, you’re an enemy. When you ask people’s religion here, some people will say I’m a Turk. Because people believe that if you’re a Turk, then you have to be Muslim.”

Ayse is an 18-year-old student living in eastern Turkey. She says that her teachers “told me that I should not raise the subject of my faith in school and share my identity with anyone. The threats are disciplinary punishments that I will not deserve, like throwing me out of school. There are teachers who turn Christianity into hate speech. They say Christianity is a changed, distorted religion, a belief where human killing is without consequence.”