World Watch Monitor, 27November 2019

The authorities in Ethiopia’s northern region of Amhara had told the Ethiopian Fellowship of Evangelical Students it no longer could operate in the town of Debark.

Earlier this month, the police arrived to make arrests.

They showed up at a 3 November gathering and arrested an undisclosed number of people attending the event.

Police pressured students to sign an agreement never to gather in Debark.  Seven church leaders, detained for three days, were released after they signed a similar agreement.

The dominant Ethiopian Orthodox Church considers the Debark region to be holy, and pressure on Protestant Christians in the area has been growing for years.

Ethiopia’s politics are charged by pronounced ethnic and religious divisions.

Open Doors, November 27, 2019

On Sunday December 1, armed men stormed a Protestant church near the border with Niger. They killed the pastor, and 13 other worshippers, including five teenagers.

This is the latest in a series of attacks specifically targeting Christians. At least 41 Christians have been killed in 9 reported jihadist attacks since the beginning of the year. An unknown number of pastors and their families have been abducted and remain in captivity.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is assumed to be the work of an Islamic extremist group. Clearly some militants are deliberately targeting Christians because of their faith. Extremists have started expelling Christians from their villages, with villagers given an ultimatum: convert to Islam or leave your homes.

Pastor Samuel Sawadogo, who cares for displaced Christians in Burkina Faso, says, “We don’t know who the attackers are, neither do we know who is sponsoring them. All we know is that they attack Christians.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, November 30, 2019

 Church leaders, human rights defenders and other activists continue to face government harassment and arbitrary detention in the wake of the approval of a new constitution that further restricts freedom of religion or belief.

The Ladies in White, a peaceful protest group consisting of wives and female family members of political prisoners, are frequently detained from attending Sunday mass and dropped off in a remote area to find their own way home.

Despite this worsening situation, there has been an unprecedented show of unity among the denominations.

In June, seven Protestant denominations, including the five largest in terms of membership, joined together to launch a new Cuban Alliance of Evangelical Churches in a show of inter-denominational unity that has not been witnessed since the 1959 Revolution.

Pray that their efforts will lead to true religious freedom in Cuba.

Barnabas Fund, 19 November 2019

Authorities in Indonesia seem to be combatting hard-line Islamist ideology by replacing school textbooks containing radical material.

Until about a generation ago Indonesian Muslims and Christians lived peaceably side by side as equals. However, in many parts of the country this no longer holds true and Christians, at least 15% of the population, have been facing discrimination, harassment and violence.

It is thought that 19% of civil servants in Indonesia favour establishing an Islamic state. Some 18% of private employees and 23% of students shared this view.

Earlier this year, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the world’s largest moderate Muslim movement, made an unprecedented decision to abolish the legal category of “infidel” for non-Muslims, sweeping away Islamic doctrines used by extremists to justify terrorism.

Barnabas Fund, 18 November 2019

Syriac Christian minister Hoseb Bedoian and his father were shot dead by two motorcycle gunmen who ambushed their car on the road from Qamishli to Deir al-Zor, in north-east Syria, on 11 November.  Some reports have linked the gunmen to ISIS. 

A few hours later, three bombs concealed on motorbikes were detonated at five-minute intervals in the city of Qamishli, in a coordinated attack targeting Kurdish and Christian communities, killing at least eight people. Some reports numbered fatalities as high as 30.

The first exploded in a quiet predominantly Kurdish district. The second bomb exploded in the heart of the city’s market where a large number of Christians own property. The third was detonated on a road near a church and Christian school.

Barnabas Fund, 12 November 2019

Bible translator Benjamin Tem was murdered in his home in the Wum area of Anglophone Cameroon on Sunday 20 October when suspected extremists broke in.   

Tem’s murder comes only two months after the death of Angus Abraham Fung, another Bible translator, who was killed when assailants broke into his home in the early hours of Sunday 25 August. Fung’s wife was viciously attacked and had her arm chopped off. 

Both Tem and Fung worked for the Cameroon Association for Bible Translations and Literacy (CABTAL). They were key members of the Bible translation project which has published over 3,000 copies of the New Testament in the regional Aghem language. Prior to this translation project, the Aghem language only existed in oral form.

Forum 18, 22 October 2019

Police have raided a Baptist church’s Sunday meetings in Urgench and threatened Pastor Stanislav Kim with eviction from his home. The congregation has met since the middle of September without official interference.

The raid targeted the regular Baptist weekly meeting for worship, as has happened many times before to the Urgench congregation.

Two days after the Sunday raid, officials summoned Pastor Kim to a meeting with police officials and the local imam. The officials were unable to explain why an official of one belief was invited to a meeting attacking followers of another belief’s exercise of freedom of religion.

The meeting decided Pastor Kim “must leave our area or arrange his meetings elsewhere”.   He and his family should be evicted from their home if the meetings do not stop.

Barnabas Fund, 4 November 2019

A Muslim minibus driver saved the lives of his eight Christian passengers in Kenya in October when he refused to obey the orders of Islamist militant hijackers.

Around ten armed Al Shabab militants attempted to flag down the minibus as it left a building site, but the driver accelerated away. The militants sprayed bullets at the minibus deflating a tyre.

The County Commissioner said, “The driver is a local but most of the passengers were non-locals whom we believe were the target.” The passengers reportedly lay on the floor as they heard the bullets hit the minibus.

Other atrocities against Christians by Al Shabab in Kenya include the murder in September 2018 of two Christians on an ambushed bus who refused to recite the Islamic creed, and of three Christians in a primary school compound in February 2018.

Morning Star News October 30, 2019 

Police in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state have put several house churches under surveillance in order to stop worship, in violation of the country’s secular constitution.  Police have told congregations to stop worship in homes in Tirupur District.

“Christians are not allowed to gather for prayers even within the four walls of their homes,” Pastor Kumar said. “The pastors of these small churches have been harassed to seek permission from district officials to conduct prayer services.”

Courts in India have repeatedly held that no permission is needed to worship in homes.

This level of opposition from government officials is undermining the secularistic values inscribed in the Indian constitution and could lead to deprivation of Christians’ right and freedom to practice their faith, which was upheld time and again in several judgments delivered by the Madras and Madurai benches of the high court.

Steadfast Global, 15 October 2019

Rather than creating a safe zone to allow 3.6 million Syrian Refugees to return home from their camps in southern Turkey, President Erdogan’s so-called Operation Peace Spring has sharply escalated tension, displaced tens of thousands and brought a new front to the conflict plaguing the nation of Syria.

An estimated 60,000 new refugees are waiting to cross the border into neighbouring Kurdistan to flee the fighting. Syrian Kurdish militias are attempting to stop the refugees from crossing into the Kurdistan region through the border checkpoint. As a consequence, desperate individuals and families are now wading the adjoining river to escape Syria.

The north-eastern area of Syria, which is known by Kurds as Rojava, is home to a large population of Syriac and Assyrian Christians who have lived at peace with their Kurdish Muslim neighbours for generations. While this incursion does not appear to be about targeting Syria’s Christians, they are caught up in the turmoil and so, at risk of injury and death.