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. “

Release International, September 21, 2020

 The wife of abducted Malaysian pastor Raymond Koh has vowed to press relentlessly for his release, calling for international efforts to set him free to be continued – and for prayers for her family, which has been under surveillance.

 Pastor Koh was abducted in broad daylight in Malaysia in February 2017 by a disciplined snatch squad. A public inquiry has pointed the finger at the authorities.  Hooded men ran towards Pastor Koh’s car and shattered his windscreen, before the entire convoy was driven away.

Meanwhile the Human Rights Commission has resumed its inquiry into Pastor Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth who went missing in 2016. The inquiry was put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hilmy was investigated after converting from Islam to Christianity. The pastor and his wife disappeared after he inquired about changing his religion on his identity card from Muslim to Christian.  The state bars Muslim citizens from converting to another faith.

Raymond Koh, an Evangelical Free Church pastor, set up Hope Community to help the poor in the capital Kuala Lumpur.  The authorities suspected him of attempting to convert Muslims.  Pastor Koh and his wife Susanna received death threats. He was sent two bullets and she white powder, which she was later told was anthrax.

World Watch Monitor, September 10, 2020

The Eritrean government has released on bail more than 20 prisoners who’d been in detention for years because of their faith, possibly because of the Covid 19 pandemic, the BBC reports.  The prisoners are from Christian evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, some held in a prison outside the capital Asmara.

In 2002 Eritrea introduced a new law that forbids all Churches except for the Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran ones. Sunni Islam is also officially recognised.  The Eritrean government has not responded to BBC requests for confirmation or denial. Previously, it’s dismissed accusations of intolerance to religious freedom.

In June 2019, the government seized all Catholic-run health clinics in the country and arrested five Orthodox priests.

In August 2019, Eritrea’s Orthodox patriarch, Abune Antonios, was expelled by pro-government bishops of his Church, accused of heresy; he had been under house arrest since 2007, when he refused to comply with the regime’s attempts to interfere with church affairs.

The US says “In 2019, religious freedom conditions in Eritrea worsened, with increasing interference in and restrictions on religious groups. Eritrea continues to have one of the worst religious freedom records in the world”.  Some prisoners, such as the leader of the Full Gospel Church, have been in prison for more than 15 years.

International Christian Concern, September 14, 2020

A new report produced by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education studied 238 Qatari textbooks over the last four academic years. The report looks at two separate parts of the curriculum as it relates to Christians. The overall conclusion was that the curriculum does not promote religious tolerance.

It noted some improvements with the Qatari curriculum in that it gives much information about Christian-Muslim interactions during the Middle Ages. There are more exercises related to cultural sharing. However, it does speak suspiciously of missionary activities, generally defined within the spheres of education, deceptive charities, and medical treatments. It warns that such activities are meant to “destroy Islam.”

The report noted almost no improvement with the curriculum of Islamic religious studies. The curriculum heavily emphasizes that Christians want to destroy Islam and blames local non-Muslim minorities with collaborating with the enemy. The report calls this an “indoctrination toward resentment.” The report also notes that the curriculum does not include material relating to the persecution of Christians. Instead, Christians are viewed as infidels.

What does exist relating to references of tolerance does not meet international standards. It warns that pan-Islamic, pan-Arab nationalism, Salafism, and the Muslim Brotherhood “dominate the religious tenor of the curriculum.”

Morning Star News, August 20, 2020

Municipal officials in Nepal ordered a church to stop construction of a worship hall after about 40 local Hindus objected to it.

Hindus had threatened relatives who became Christians after pastor Manish Bohra began proclaiming Christ in January. When the church began to outgrow its rented room, he obtained an eight-year lease on land from an area resident on which to build a temporary worship structure.

“On July 26, I received a phone call from officials warning us not to construct a church, and that they had received a petition from the local residents opposing Christian activities in the area,” Pastor Bohra told Morning Star News.

Nepalese law does not provide for registration of religious organizations with the exception of Buddhist monasteries.

The church in Galkot began with just two families in January and within a few weeks grew to 45 members.

“Many from Hindu families had come to Christ from poverty-stricken and emotionally drained families.  As a church, we had encouraged them to put belief in Christ, and soon we saw the Lord working in their lives.”