Christian rights groups have recorded 154 incidents of persecution against believers in India for the first half of 2021 alone, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Persecution against Indian Christians has intensified since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
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.
Three Baptist pastors from Kachin, Myanmar are facing three years imprisonment after the Burmese regime arrested them on June 28 for organizing prayers for peace, International Christian Concern reports.
A pastor in India’s Haryana state was beaten to death on June 30 after sharing the “love and forgiveness of Christ” with a man who then murdered him, Morning Star News reports. India ranks 10 on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
Protestant Church leaders in Indonesia have accused Jakarta of perpetuating unrest and division instead of addressing human rights violations in the country, International Christian Concern reports. The Protestant Church Council, which comprises the Indonesian Christian Church in Papua, the Kemah Injili Church, and the Evangelical Church in Indonesia, published its accusations in a June 2 statement.
Christians in impoverished parts of Indonesia appeal for food and essential hospital equipment as the second wave of COVID-19 engulfs the world’s largest Muslim nation, aid workers say.
A church in Mamasa in the West Sulawesi province of Indonesia was burned down during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, June 27, International Christian Concern reports. No one was in the Toraja Mamasa church building at the time of the arson, and the destruction was discovered as people arrived later in the morning to worship at the Sunday service.
More than 50 Christians from 13 families have recently been forced to leave their villages and escape into the jungle of India’s Odisha state by tribal animists enraged at the believers’ faith in Christ, Morning Star News reported Friday. India ranks 10 on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries that persecute Christians.
A court of appeals in Pakistan has upheld the life sentence of Zafar Bhatti, a Christian man who was convicted and imprisoned in 2017 for supposedly sending insulting text messages Islam’s prophet Mohammed, Morning Star News reports. Pakistan is one of nine nations the US has designated a “Country of Particular Concern” for severe violations of religious freedom.
The California-based rights group Vietnam Human Rights Network (VHRN) has published its 2020-2021 report, asserting that Vietnamese Christians are suffering persecution, including imprisonment and land confiscation at the hands of the country’s communist government, ICC reports.
Christians are among other persecuted religious minorities in Bangladesh who continue to actively protest the 1988 constitutional amendment that established Islam as the country’s state religion, the Christian Post reports.
As violent conflicts between the Burmese army and local forces in Myanmar continue unabated, five civilians sheltering in churches were recently killed as an increasing number of church buildings in Kayah and Shan states have been attacked in the fighting, International Christian Concern reports. Kayah state has one of the largest communities of Christians in Myanmar.
Thousands have been displayed, and many face starvation after Myanmar’s army attacked internally displaced people (IDP) camps in the country’s Christian-majority Chin State, aid workers confirmed.
Islamic extremists in Pakistan are publicly calling for the beheading of a Christian couple and their attorney after the Lahore High Court quashed the couple’s 2014 conviction for alleged blasphemy and ordered their release from prison, Morning Star News.
Recent accusations by Vietnamese government authorities that Christians are responsible for spreading COVID-19 in the country may have caused long-lasting damage to Vietnam’s Evangelical community, Morning Star News.
Christian leaders in India and Nepal are dying of COVID-19 at such a rate that “scores of Christian ministries” are in danger of closing as there is no one to lead them, aid workers say. ‘Black fungus’ now poses an additional deadly threat in India, where thousands of pastors and other Christian leaders reportedly died.
A Christian man who defended his sister against sexual violence has been killed by “militant Muslims” in Pakistan’s Punjab province, according to Christians familiar with the situation.
A homeless Christian couple in Bhutan are denied aid from the government unless they convert to Buddhism, according to Christians familiar with the situation.
Police in Indonesia have uncovered an Islamist terrorist plot to attack several churches and assassinate a church leader in the country’s Christian-majority province of Papua, Worthy News learned Thursday.
A Christian widow in India’s eastern Odisha state has been forced to ‘re-convert to her old religion by villagers who threatened to prevent her husband’s funeral, Christian aid workers discovered.