Muslim Fulani herdsmen continue to murder Christian Nigerians and, on July 29, fourteen Baptist Christians were killed in Agbadu-Daruwana in central Nigeria’s Kogi state, Morning Star News reports. “Please pray for God’s intervention against antichrist in the land,” leaders of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship have implored in a Facebook post.
A Christian convert in Iran has won an appeal against conviction for “insulting the sacred beliefs of Muslims,” but lost his appeal against two charges of inciting “propaganda against the state” and for “membership of a [“Zionist” evangelical] group hostile to the regime” respectively, the Christian Post reports. Ismaeil Maghrebinejad was arrested in January 2019 and sentenced by a civil court in January 2020 to a total of six years imprisonment on the original three charges.
The Chief Minister of India’s Haryana state has announced he proposes to add a Freedom of Religion Act that would criminalize forced conversions, Persecution.org reports. Commonly referred to as anti-conversion laws, such legislation has already been enacted in eight other Indian states. The announcement on June 16 by Manohar Lal Khattar has reportedly caused serious concerns to Haryana Christians: radical Hindus have used this law in other states to justify attacks on Christians and their places of worship.
China’s Communist leadership has ordered devoted Christians not to believe in God, well-informed activists, and local believers say. “Attacks on house churches have intensified across China. Police and government officials raid places of worship and intimidate congregations,” added Shen Xiang, who writes for Bitter Winter, a respected religious rights magazine on China.
Reports emerged this week that Islamic extremists in eastern Uganda have murdered a pastor and a church member for preaching the Gospel to Muslims, the Christian Post reported Saturday. Pastor Peter Kyakulaga and parishioner Tuule Mumbya of Church of Christ were beaten and drowned in a lake in Lugonyola village in the Gadumire Sub-County of Kaliro District on June 22. Church leaders have reportedly asked the local Christian community not to retaliate, but to be in prayer instead, the Christian Post said.
Foreign Christians are being told to leave Turkey and others have been barred from re-entering the country, Morning Star News reported Sunday. Rights advocates have said the Turkish government seems to be purposefully aiming such actions against Protestant Christians.
The Planned Parenthood abortion provider has filed suit against The Church at Planned Parenthood (TCAPP) in Spokane, Wash. for being too loud and harming their clients, Fox News reports. Its website explains that TCAPP is not a protest but “a gathering of Christians for the worship of God… and repentance of our blood guiltiness in this abortion holocaust.” TCAPP holds a service once a month, including worship songs and prayer, after Planned Parenthood has closed for the business day.
The International Christian Concern (ICC) non-governmental organization has received a new report that Chinese authorities threatened to send children from a church in Chengdu to re-education camps, Christian Today reports. ICC has previously reported that Chinese authorities had removed children from Christian families on the grounds that they were “trapped by an evil religion.”
Islamic militants in northeast Nigeria have murdered four aid workers and a security guard after abducting them while they worked for the International Rescue Committee and Action Against Hunger, Reuters reported last week. In a video released by the militants last month, those who died were first shown alive and then shot dead on camera.
Christians in northwest Nigeria have plunged into mourning after at least 10 people were killed and 11 seriously injured in a massive attack by suspected Muslim militants, rights activists say.
The leading British bank Barclays has closed the account of a Christian charity which tries to help people overcome unwanted same-sex attraction, Premier Christian News reports.
Thousands of Iranian Muslims have left Islam and have put their faith in Jesus Christ since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Iran in March, CBN News reports.
A Russian court has fined an influential priest for publicly denying the existence of the new coronavirus and urging his followers to ignore government ordered lockdowns.
The Chinese government is reported to have told poor Christian families they must give up their faith or lose state aid, CBN News reports. In a report published Monday, the Bitter Winter human rights group said: “People on social welfare [have been] ordered to worship the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), not God.” This latest action follows longstanding persecution of Christians by the communist regime in China.
Prosecutors in France say a fire that erupted in the Gothic cathedral of the western French city of Nantes started deliberately. Tourists and residents watched in horror Saturday as firefighters battled the blaze at the 15th-century St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in the city’s historical center.
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) human rights group has said the murder of Christians in Nigeria has reached “genocidal” levels, Christian Today reports. According to Intersociety, more than 1,200 Nigerian Christians were murdered by Muslim Fulani and Islamist militants in the first half of 2020 alone.
Christians in eastern China were recovering of their injuries Thursday after trying to prevent the removal of crosses from churches by Chinese government forces.
Indian church leaders have condemned the killing of a young Protestant missionary and pastor by suspected Maoist rebels in western India.
Iraqi Christians want prayers for Christian and Kurdish families suffering from Turkish bombardments and incursions in Northern Iraq, aid workers say.
Christian converts in Sudan are rejoicing after the transitional government scrapped legislation that made leaving Islam punishable by death, Worthy News learned.