The director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom has stated that Christians in Afghanistan are being killed by the ruling Taliban Islamic extremists, Christian Today reports. Nina Shea made her remarks after the Taliban took over Afghanistan again on August 15, and as US troops prepared to leave.
Many of thousands of Afghan Christians are fleeing through mountains and other challenging terrains to neighboring nations amid fears they will be killed by Afghanistan’s ruling Islamist Taliban group, according to multiple sources.
While thousands of Christians now live in grave danger of murder at the hands of the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan, an Afghan-believing family has managed to escape and arrive safely in Italy, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban on August 15, Afghan Christians began fleeing to the mountains to escape the Islamist rulers, who reportedly have a hit-list of believers to kill and who are going door-to-door taking women and children, Fair Mission (FAI) reported.
Afghan Christians are calling for prayer and international advocacy as they are now targets for intense, violent persecution by the new Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported Monday. The most recent call for prayer came through Mission Network News.
The leader of the underground church in Afghanistan has given a first-hand ground report, explaining that believers are in grave danger and that the Taliban have a “hit-list” of Christians they are searching for to murder, the Christian Post (CP) reports. Known as “Pastor X” for security reasons, the church leader gave his report to the Global Catalytic Ministries non-profit organization.
American evangelist Franklin Graham has urged believers to pray for the “thousands of people desperately trying to escape from Afghanistan,” including Afghan Christians and up to 15,000 Americans as well as their allies. Graham, son of the late legendary preacher Billy Graham, appealed “after the country’s fall to the Taliban” group, which he called Islamic extremists.
Islamist Taliban militants ruling Afghanistan have begun executing Christians who refuse to renounce their faith, a well-informed Christian broadcaster said Tuesday.
Rights groups, including Release International, are warning that the persecution of Christians in Afghanistan will likely intensify now the Taliban have taken power and the US and NATO have withdrawn, Christian Today (CT) reports. The Afghan church had been driven underground by Islamic apostasy laws even before the Taliban takeover, but the situation is now reported to be “dire.”
The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan and local Christian pastors facing the threat of intensified bloody persecution are standing in faith while calling on the worldwide Body of Christ for prayer. “God has a purpose and a plan,” an Afghan pastor told International Christian Concern (ICC).
Christian aid workers warned Friday that Afghan Christians are “at a huge risk” as American troops leave the country.
Christians in Islamic Afghanistan are calling for “fervent” prayer as US, NATO, and Australian forces prepare to withdraw all troops by September, Vision Christian Radio radio reports. The US Open Doors watchdog group has rated the level of persecution against Christians in Afghanistan as ‘Extreme,’ even with the presence of US and allied troops in the country.
A member of the Afghan Parliament recently recommended that Muslim converts to Christ be executed to stop the growth of Christianity among the Islamic nation’s citizens both within Afghanistan’s borders and abroad, according to Aleteia.
The qu’rans burned at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan were removed from the library of a detainee center “because of extremist inscriptions,” a military official said Tuesday.
There aren’t any public churches left standing in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.
Afghani Christians are warned of “dire consequences” should American forces leave Afghanistan, Worthy News has learned. “If U.S. troops are not in Afghanistan the Taliban will come to power,” said Obaid S. Christ, an Afghan Christian exiled to India, said last Tuesday. “We will have the same situation we had in the 1990s when the Russians left Afghanistan, when we had civil war and millions killed.”
An Afghan man who was arrested for converting to Christianity and fears hemay be executed, remained behind bars Wednesday, March 30, more than a month after another convert was released amid international pressure.
An Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity has been released, a well-informed Christian aid and advocacy group confirmed Thursday, February 24.
Human rights campaigners on Friday, December 17, urged the U.S. commander in war-torn Afghanistan, David Petraeus, to pressure the Afghan government to release two detained Christians who face the death penalty for “apostasy”, or abandoning Islam.
Afghanistan has postponed the trial of a disabled man who faces the death penalty for allegedly converting from Islam to Christianity, trial observers and officials said Tuesday, November 23.