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.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, October 2019

It’s been nearly a year since Early Rain Church in China last saw their pastor, Wang Yi.  Arrested along with over 100 church members in December 2018, Pastor Wang has been in detention ever since.  He was targeted for peacefully speaking up for churches and Christians who were being harassed by the government.

Despite experiencing an incredibly difficult year, Early Rain Church perseveres. And while several members remain behind bars, others, including Pastor Wang’s wife Jiang Rong, have been released on bail.

In a statement on Facebook in July, a member of the church wrote:

“We thank God for leading us through these trials and allowing us to share in this calling … We also thank God for giving (us) so many brothers and sisters with obedient and steadfast hearts.  As many churches within God’s kingdom of grace suffer with us, he has shown us that ‘it is good … to share in our trouble’.  (Philippians 4:14)  We have experienced God’s wonderful promises, faithfulness, and comfort …  We do this for the faith.”

World Watch Monitor,  October 11, 2019 

Friends of a 40-year-old Egyptian who converted from Islam to Christianity believe his premature death on 4^th October is linked to numerous threats he received from his family.

Before Amr Hussein Mohamed El-Sayeh died, he told friends that his family threatened to kill him.

His family did not hold a funeral for him; instead El-Sayeh was buried in a charity cemetery for the poor.  El-Sayeh had left his job teaching Islamic studies in March 2019.

He told his friend that he had watched Christian satellite TV.   “Watching these programmes made him want to know more about the truth of Islam and to read more of the Bible and to compare it and pray.”  On 13 April, he was secretly baptized into the Christian faith.

“He was a very brave man. He loved Christ very much. He kept faith till his last breath and refused to renounce his new faith. He was martyred in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Voice of the Martyrs, 30 September 2019

North Korean underground Christians do not reveal their Christian identity even to their own children until the children reach the age of fifteen. That is because North Korean schoolteachers are responsible for getting children to inadvertently reveal that their families are Christian.

They ask questions like, “Do your parents have a special book they hide in your home? Do they sing different songs to the ones we sing in school? Do they ever bow their heads or close their eyes and mumble?” More than a few children have been the cause of their own families (including themselves) ending up in concentration camps.

One woman was about seven years old when she found a Bible in her home. Without hesitation, she knew she needed to inform the police. Her parents, underground Christian leaders, tied her up in a chair to prevent her from going out. They shared the Gospel with her, and she became a Christian rather than a government informer.

North Koreans have a saying: Whenever two or three people are gathered together, one of them is a spy. This is true even in family settings, as children are taught to spy on their parents from a young age.

Morning Star News, September 30, 2019

Boko Haram released a video last week showing the execution of two Christian aid workers in Nigeria.

Lawrence Dacighir and Godfrey Shikagham, who had gone to Maiduguri to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence, were shot from behind.

The middle terrorist in the video says that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture in revenge for Muslims killed in past religious conflicts in Nigeria.

Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, said “Lawrence and Godfrey left for Maiduguri for the betterment of humanity and paid with their lives”.

Emmanuel Ogebe of the U.S.-Nigeria Law Group, wrote to the U.N. that workers kidnapped in July had issued a distressed plea for government help with no notable administration response.

He expressed concern that the Nigerian government did not condemn the killing of the two men even though they were helping to provide shelter for displaced Nigerians. 

“Despite these humanitarian organizations’ resilience in still serving victims, the Nigerian Government has since just last week suspended Action Against Hunger and Mercy Corp on dubious grounds.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, 27 Sep 2019

Toledano Valiente, a prominent Christian leader in Cuba, was summoned to a police station on 25 September. He has received at least 17 police summons since 1 August.

A Commander ‘Lorenzo’ told him he was accused of ‘disobedience’ because of a women’s event held in his church. He had previously warned Valiente he would risk imprisonment if his church staged it. Despite the threat, the church went ahead with the event.

A formal accusation was lodged against him, but the authorities refused to give him a copy of the document.

He told CSW: “Pastors are more at risk than criminals and bandits … since I have not fled into exile, they seek to put me in prison. I committed no crime, it had to be manufactured. I cannot carry out any religious activity; that is to say they want me to stop being a pastor.”

In July, Toledano Valiente was prevented by government agents from boarding a flight to the US to attend the US Ministerial on International Religious Freedom.

CSW have called on the Cuban government to remind the country of its obligations in regard to the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”