World Watch Monitor,  February 3, 2020

Three churches in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile state, rebuilt after arson attacks in December, were burned down again in January.  On the evening of 28 December, the Sudan Internal Church, Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church in Bout town, near the border with South Sudan, were set alight.

The three churches were restored with local materials, only to be set on fire again by unidentified arsonists on 16 January.

The Minister of Religious Affairs said that the police are investigating. “If it is proven that it occurred as a result of a criminal offence, the perpetrators will be identified, pursued and brought to justice,” he said, reaffirming “Sudan’s full commitment to protecting religious freedoms and “houses of worship from any threats”.

Sudan’s Blue Nile and South Kordofan states are at the centre of an ongoing armed conflict between government forces and militants belonging to the Sudan People Liberation Movement.  Years of fighting has sent hundreds of thousands of people fleeing their homes in the region where most of Sudan’s Christians live.

Morning Star News, March 30, 2020

Police in India’s Tamil Nadu state rushed to a slum where Christians were providing aid earlier this month and detained them on false charges of forcible conversion.

They humiliated the Christians, accusing them in coarse language of trying to fraudulently convert the poor in the guise of providing basic necessities.

Shortly after the pastor and about 30 young adults from the church arrived at the slum area on March 8, a Hindu extremist showed up and began uttering obscenities.

“He started beating the youth missionaries and abused them in extremely foul language,” the pastor said.

The Hindu nationalist told them he had already filed a police complaint against them and the Christians were shocked when police arrived and took them into custody.

“They spoke ill about Christianity and slapped us as we stood there in the police station helplessly,”

Inspector of Police Senthil Vinayagam spoke abusively to the Christians, trying to incite the youths to respond aggressively to his words, but by God’s grace they did not.

Police released them with a warning that they should not be seen again attempting to convert people in the area.

Barnabas Fund 10 March 2020

Christian families set free from the yoke of bonded labour in Pakistan’s brick-kilns because of the generosity of Barnabas Fund supporters are, in turn, releasing their brothers and sisters from the same burden of debt!

The 1,001 families whose lives have been transformed since Barnabas first stepped in to help in 2017 have since given enough money themselves to free another 86 families caught in the quagmire of debt.

Many of the freed families have voluntarily and joyfully set aside a small portion of their wages, low as they are, to donate to a “revolving loan fund” which is used to repay the debts of other bonded Christian labourers. The freed families are thrilled to be in a position to help other believers.

Widower and father-of-two, James Iqbal, who was freed in Phase 1 of the project, back in 2017, said “It will be my utmost priority to lend a hand in this noble cause in helping my other brothers and sisters. We had never imagined that we could be free.”

His contributions and those of other freed families, gathered together, are what have set free the extra 86 Christian families.

Morning Star News March 10, 2020

More than a year ago, Muslims in the area between Sudan and South Sudan noticed that Ahmed Alnour was no longer reciting his Islamic prayers five times a day.

He worked as a scrap trader on the border formed from the peace agreement that ended civil war in Sudan in 2005 but  was soon forced to flee when area Muslims confirmed that he had become a Christian.

He saw them and heard them saying, “We will kill you because you left Islam and became infidel,” and they tried to burn down his home on April 1, 2019.

Neighbours doused the flames and he was unharmed, but on April 8 the assailants returned at 1 a.m. as he slept. He awoke to find his house in flames.

Christians rescued him and took him to a hospital the following morning. He had lost all his possessions in the fire but not his faith in Christ.

The 43-year-old father of 7 children had put his faith in Christ just a few months prior.  Paralyzed from an illness for three months, he received a visit from two evangelists who prayed for him and told him of salvation in Christ.

After placing his trust in Christ, he was healed.  “I was able to get up and walk after three months of sickness.”

Baptized last Christmas, he has got a place to stay and a job from church friends at an undisclosed village but someday hopes to return and tell his family about Christ.

World Watch Monitor March 6, 2020

The UN Secretary-General last week called it ‘the biggest data gap in the world: the unquestioned assumption that men are standard, and women the exception. Very often, women are not counted, and their experiences don’t count.

In its Gender-specific Religious Persecution Report 2020, Open Doors says the two most-reported persecutions used against Christian women and girls globally are sexual violence and forced marriage.

Across every region of the world, sexual violence continues to be the most prevalent means of exerting power and control over Christian women and girls. Often this sexual violence is outside marriage; but forced marriage also gives an appearance of respectability from which a woman cannot escape.

Women are disproportionately targeted, in many more ways than men, especially if they are converts from another faith such as Islam or Buddhism. These young women are physically alive, but they are hidden and isolated; hence their suffering is frequently un-reported. They are also lost to the Christian community and to the future of the Church.

Barnabas Fund, 2 March 2020

Wuhan is the Chinese city of eleven million quarantined following the coronavirus outbreak.

A Wuhan Christian describes how all the churches have become “virtual”, their ministries now run on the internet, because no one is able to visit and worship in person. People are only allowed out of their homes once every two days – and only for food.

At the same time, it is imperative to be in masks and gloves, the whole city is smelling of bleach, entrances, streets and even incoming parcels are disinfected.

“I want to talk you about the needs of believers in Wuhan.  Believers call it the plague.  In fact, many believers fell ill. They got sick at the beginning when it was still possible for them to attend the services.  Pray for them, they are all discouraged.  There is a shortage of medical masks, as well as medical personnel. Many of our brothers and sisters work there as doctors, pray for them also.”

Barnabas Fund, 25 February 2020

Eleven Christians were killed in an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in north-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on 18 February.  A local Christian leader confirmed that the ADF deliberately targeted Christians in the attack.

Attacks by the ADF are common in the region – every time the military in the DRC mount an operation against the ADF, the civilians are attacked as retribution.  Many people, including Christians, have fled to neighbouring Uganda.

The ADF Islamist militant group has wracked majority-Christian DRC with violence for  more than 20 years.

Over 200 Christians, including women and children were abducted and a church mission hospital was looted by the militants, during a raid in Ituri province, on 23 August 2019.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 1 March 2020

“They want to stop me being a pastor,” says Alain Toledano Valiente, discussing the intimidation and harassment he’s experienced over the years at the hands of the Cuban authorities – including his home and church being demolished twice.  The pressure has increased in recent months, but he’s courageously refusing to give in.

Across Chile, Cuba, Columbia and Mexico, members of religious minorities like Toledano Valiente, experience discrimination, abuse and worse because of their faith.

In August, Pastor Aarón Méndez Ruis, the director of a Christian migrant shelter in Mexico, and his colleague Alfredo Castillo de Luna were kidnapped and forcibly disappeared.

Local partners on the ground document religious freedom violations, often at great personal risk.  Due to the government’s control of communication lines, getting information into and out of Cuba can be difficult, and can compromise the security of local partners.

Opportunities are needed to train local authorities, in Mexico and Columbia – teaching them what freedom of religion or belief means and how to properly document human rights violations.

Forum 18, 11 February 2020

For more than a decade, the authorities in Kaluga, south-west of Moscow, have tried to confiscate the church building and land from Word of Life Pentecostal Church.

When the Pentecostals bought the unfinished sports complex in 2002, the local authorities had no complaints.

The Regional Arbitration Court ruled against Word of Life on 29 March 2019, arguing that the Church had not obtained proper permissions for the reconstruction and that the building had serious defects.  Word of Life insists that these problems have been resolved and presented five expert reports to show that the building is safe.

State inspections, including site visits and examination of technical and legal documents, concluded that the building conformed to all construction norms, and did not pose a threat to the life and health of citizens.

Word of Life lodged an appeal at Kaluga Regional Court on 14 January 2020, and the first hearing has been scheduled for 2 March. At present the Church continues to be able to use its building.

“The question remains – who benefits from destroying the temple, and depriving believers of a place where they can practise their faith on the basis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation?” Word of Life commented.

Morning Star News February 12, 2020 

A high court in Pakistan has validated the marriage and forced conversion to Islam of a 14-year-old Christian girl.

Huma Younus was taken from her home in Karachi on Oct. 10 and forced to marry the man who abducted her.

The family’s attorney said that the family was prohibited from seeing Huma because police said her life would be at risk if she was brought to the courtroom.

The Sindh Act 2013 declares marrying a person under 18 years old an offense punishable by up to three years in prison but the law is still poorly implemented.

The family has appealed to the Court of Justice in Sindh Province – a hearing is scheduled for March 4.

Since forced conversions are not illegal in Pakistan, her attorney said he believed the case hinged on Huma’s age.

Supreme Court Advocate Saiful Malook told Morning Star News “In no way can any court of law endorse an underage marriage unless it is supported by the girl’s guardian”.

Malook, who represented Asia Bibi and won her freedom, said that abducting for forced conversion and underage marriage is a major problem in Pakistan.