Morning Star News, November 2, 2018

 Three acts of aggression against Christians in Assam state, India in one month have raised concerns among Christian leaders.

 In Bongaigaon District, a radical Hindu mob on Oct. 2 assaulted three Christians in Dhaligaon village.  The hard-line Hindus refused to yield to orders to stop attacking Mahindra Brahma and his family, who became Christians 10 years ago.  Three guests had visited Brahma’s house that evening. After dinner, the extremists stopped their car and assaulted them with iron rods and stones.

 In Majuli District, a mob led by a Hindu priest attacked a church property on Oct. 15 and attempted to demolish the building.  Local villagers stopped them. Pastor Dutta, a convert from Hinduism, had built the bamboo structure for his 30-member congregation with his own hands.  “Once the villagers become Christians, they stop giving their offering to the temples, and this is making the Hindu priests angry.”

 In Sonitpur District, unidentified people desecrated a statue near a Catholic cathedral on Sept. 29.  “These people must have come prepared, because they used weapons to break the statue,” the principal of Emanuel Christian School told Morning Star News.

World Watch Monitor, November 2, 2018

At least seven people have been killed and 14 injured in another attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt.

The attack reportedly took place at almost exactly the same location as the May 2017 attack by Islamist militants which left 28 dead. This latest attack again targeted a bus full of Copts heading back from St. Samuel’s monastery in Minya.  Local contacts confirmed that two church-owned buses were targeted – one big, one small.

“The driver of the big bus managed to escape the scene and no-one in that bus got hurt. The second, smaller bus, did not manage to escape. The terrorists stopped the bus and opened fire on the passengers,” said a priest in Minya.  

The injured have been taken to different hospitals in the area.

Hanaa Youssef Mikhael, who lost her husband in the 2017 bus attack, said: “I am very sad about what happened. And I am startled: How is it possible that this happened again?”

“Why were they not protected?” asked Emad Nasif, a deacon in a church in Minya. “There seems to be an indifference to the safety of the Christian minority.”

Open Doors, 11 October 2018

 As our workers walked through a village in Indonesia, surrounded by the rubble and destruction left behind by the recent earthquake, they could hear voices singing ‘Hallelujah’.  Coming round the corner they found a group of believers, under a tent, singing their praises to God.

 It’s incredible to see the faith of our brothers and sisters in Indonesia, even in the most difficult circumstances. The toll of dead and missing following the earthquake and tsunami now approaches 5,000, and thousands more are homeless.

On top of that, Christians are facing discrimination because of their faith as aid is distributed.

 One of the Open Doors workers shared that, when military tents and other relief aid were sent to the Muslim victims of Petobo, only a small amount of instant noodles were given to the Christians of a neighbouring village. The worker says that such discrimination is widespread.

 And yet, our brothers and sisters still choose to sing ‘Hallelujah’.

Morning Star News, October 12, 2018

Rights groups learned last week that two Christians in Iran have been sentenced to prison.

Saheb Fadaei, already serving a 10-year prison sentence in Tehran, and Fatimeh Bakherti, both converts from Islam, were sentenced to 18 months and 12 months respectively for “spreading propaganda against the regime,” a common charge, according to Miles Windsor of Middle East Concern (MEC).

“It is essentially used along with charges such as ‘acting against national security’ as a broad charge against Christians,” Windsor said. “And it will relate to innocent activities as members of a house church.”

The verdict, which is being appealed, stated that house church discussions of Christian doctrine regarding the ascendancy of Christ and the ultimate authority of the Bible were interpreted as attacks on Islam.

Such a statement reveals the true religious-based motives behind the arrests, Windsor said.

Morning Star News, October 17, 2018

Security officials in Sudan last week arrested 13 Christians during a worship service in the Darfur Region.

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) gave no reason for arresting the Christians, except to say that they were all converts from Islam.  Authorities are targeting Christian converts from Islam in Darfur.

One source said that “the Christians gathered as one body of Christ from different denominations.”

NISS, widely regarded as an agency staffed by hard-line Islamists, may hold people in detention for up to four and a half months without charges.

Sudan since 2012 has expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings. Besides raiding Christian bookstores and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to find other Christians.

Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999.

Sudan ranked fourth on Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians face most persecution.

World Watch Monitor, September 26, 2018

Around 30 people have died following attacks by Fulani militants on five predominantly Christian communities in northeast Nigeria.

Between September 13 and 16, the villages of Gon, Bolki, Ndumusu, Yotti and Yanga were under attack by Fulani militants who pillaged, murdered, chased, kidnapped, and burned down the houses of villagers.

3,000 homes were destroyed last December after fighter jets, sent by the Nigerian Air Force, allegedly fired rockets at villages where Fulani herdsmen were attacking Christians.

In the current attack, 27 people had been confirmed dead.  When residents heard gunshots, many fled into the bush or the river. Many who fled to the river drowned because they could not swim.

Barnabas Fund, 25 September 2018

Al-Shabaab terrorists flagged down a bus in north-eastern city Kenya and ordered the passengers to produce their identity cards. They separated three “non-local” (i.e. non-Muslim) passengers and asked them to recite the shahada Islamic creed which is considered conversion to Islam.

Two passengers who refused, a boy called Joshua and a labourer from farther south, were tied up and murdered.

In 2014, 28 Christians travelling on a bus in north-east Kenya, were singled out and killed by Al Shabaab jihadists.  As in this recent attack, passengers thought to be non-Muslim were ordered to recite the shahada.

Kenya is around 80% Christian and 10% Muslim.  Somali-based Al Shabaab repeatedly targets Kenyan Christians.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, September 25, 2018

The shocking genocide of the Rohingya people is now being followed by an appalling escalation of violence involving crimes against humanity against the Kachin, a largely Christian ethnic group.

7,000 Kachin have been displaced from their homes in the past year alone, while 66 churches have been destroyed since 2011. And a recent UN report said that abuses against the Kachin (which include rape, torture, and enslavement) “undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”.

The world must act now to protect the Kachin. Their suffering has been ignored too long.

Barnabas Fund, 11 September 2018

Chinese authorities shut down one of the largest unofficial churches in Beijing on Sunday 9 September.

The church has been permitted to operate for years with relative freedom, but since church leaders refused a request from authorities to install CCTV cameras inside the building in April the church has come under growing pressure. 

The government introduced new religion regulations governing church registration in February.

As many as 1,500 people attend the church’s five weekly services. Police officers are now guarding the building. Prior to the church being shut down the congregation had been threatened with eviction.

China’s Communist government only recognises state-registered churches, which are closely monitored.

World Watch Monitor, September 17, 2018

In Central African Republic, dozens of people are feared killed after suspected Islamist rebels attacked a group of civilians in the central town of Bria earlier this month.

Local sources contacted by World Watch Monitor said as many as 42 were killed, as details about the attacks are now emerging.

Sources said the victims were mainly women who were hacked to death while returning from farms to the predominantly Christian quarter of the town, to sell their farm products.

Despite the presence of UN peacekeepers, the town of Bria witnessed a wave of violence at the end of August.  The Christian populations of the town said they had been particularly targeted.

“The Seleka militants don’t want to see any Christians here,” one church leader said. “We Christians have nothing else to do, no food to eat, no place to go. We rely only on prayers.  It is a very difficult situation for us here. We pray for God’s help for us,” another church leader in the camp said.

Central African Republic has witnessed an upsurge of violence in recent months, notably with attacks targeting churches and clerics in Bangui, the capital.