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.”

International Christian Concern, December 13, 2020 

Algeria’s Court of Amizour has tried two Christians for “insulting the prophet and denigrating the precepts of the Muslim religion.”

In the first case, the prosecutor has requested two years in prison and a fine of 200,000 dinars ($1519 USD). The verdict is expected on December 15th. A verdict in the second case is expected on December 17th. The defendant in this case is threatened with the same charge and fine, but only six months in prison.

Algeria has undergone a recent political transition and constitutional reform which held the opportunity for the country to protect religious freedom. However, it was a missed opportunity. The Protestant churches which had begun to be forcefully closed in 2017 were completely closed under the pandemic. The Catholic churches have been allowed to reopen, but the Protestant churches remain shuttered and continue facing harassment from the authorities.

Barnabas Fund, 24 November 2020

A community of about 40 Indian Christians in Gagari, near Ranchi the Jharkhand state capital, was arrested by police when an angry mob of 1,500 locals, led by extremists, converged on their village to pressure the believers into renouncing their faith in Christ.

After months of threats and harassment, the Christians were summoned to attend the latest village council meeting on 3 October, where the large mob of villagers confronted the tiny community.

Police presence was required to prevent an outbreak of violence. But, despite being peaceful, it was the Christians themselves who were arrested. All of those taken into custody have since been released.

Village council meetings have frequently been used to threaten and intimidate the Christian community in Gagari. Since being released, some of the Christians have been prevented from accessing medical treatments, including a pregnant woman who was not allowed to see a midwife.

Violent attacks against Christians have been on the rise in Jharkhand State during 2020.

The Voice of the Martyrs, November 26, 2020

A Laotian teenager was kicked out after her mother and stepfather realized she had become a Christian.

Monthida, 16, accepted Christ after a friend brought her to church. Whenever Monthida would come home late from school, her mother would quiz her on where she had been and why she was late.

When her mother found out Monthida had become a Christian, her stepfather worried he would lose his job if others discovered that someone in his family was a Christian.

He and her mother tried many times to get Monthida to give up her faith, but she would not. Finally, her stepfather told Monthida not to come back home unless she was ready to renounce Christ.

Monthida is now living with a pastor and his family. “Pray that Monthida will not be discouraged,” a Voice of the Martyrs contact in Laos wrote.

Morning Star News, November 26, 2020

Muslim relatives of a former sheikh in eastern Uganda who refused to renounce Christ killed his 6-year-old son on Monday (Nov. 23).

Following a two-hour meeting with Muslim relatives in Kibuku District, former sheikh (Islamic teacher) Emmanuel Hamuzah refused their demand to renounce Christ.  Shortly afterward, his brothers, sisters and paternal uncle attacked him outside his house, he said.

His 6-year-old son, Ibrahim Mohammad, was outside with him when the five relatives approached at about 6:30 p.m., with one saying, “You should renounce this Christian faith, which is a disgrace to our family,” Hamuzah said.

“I refused to yield to their demand, and they started fighting me with kicks and blows,” Hamuzah told Morning Star News. “I tried to defend myself while the other attackers were stepping on my child’s neck, suffocating him.”

The assailants fled when neighbours rushed toward the commotion, and his son died before he could obtain medical help, he said. The family has not reported the assault to police out of fear of further violence by the assailants.

Hamuzah, who with his wife has three other children ages 10, 8 and 4, put his faith in Christ two years ago.

Morning Star News, November 15, 2020

Authorities in Cuba have demolished a church building and are blocking other churches from re-opening after the lifting of pandemic restrictions.

“Today the government is blocking the re-opening of some of our temples, which we closed due to the pandemic, based on the argument that they’re illegal, when 90 percent of our churches are illegal because they don’t offer us a pathway for making them legal,” Pastor Julio C. Sánchez said.

The church obtained legal status, and thus the right to negotiate with officials, before the onset of the regime of Fidel Castro in 1959 halted legalizing new churches.

“The reality is that this is part of a government campaign against the church, because we have made a front against its agenda of establishing gender ideology and other laws openly contrary to Christian principles.”

Accusations against evangelicals in state-controlled media are constant and growing, portraying them as extremist, homophobic, anti-development and used by anti-government groups, he added.

To demolish the sanctuary, police who arrived early in the morning had to remove more than 30 Christians who had gathered there to pray and did not hesitate to use violence.

Barnabas Fund, 10 November 2020

Islamic militants turned a village football pitch in northern Mozambique into an execution ground where they beheaded more than 50 people between Friday, 6 November and Sunday, 8 November.

In one attack, gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” stormed into Nanjaba village on 6 November, firing weapons and setting homes alight. Two villagers were beheaded and several women were abducted.

Christians who refuse to deny Christ are amongst the victims. The attacks are amongst the worst seen, in recent years. Desperate people are flooding in to the Christian mission stations for protection.

More than 2,000 people have been killed and about 430,000 left homeless in the region since 2017. The militant Islamist organisation, known locally as Al Shabaab (not the Somali-based group), is linked to Islamic State and has effectively gained control of an area of Cabo Delgado.