WASHINGTON (BP)–Christians in the country of Bhutan are facing a much-escalated level of opposition and persecution, according to a report to the Baptist World Alliance from D. Kitbok Ryntathiang, director of the Christian Academy, Shillong, in northeast India.
Christian leaders in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state have accused the government of coercing Muslim converts to Christianity into attacking Christians and demolishing church buildings.
Reports from Laos say authorities closed two churches in the southern part of the country earlier this year.
March 25 was a special Sunday for the 18,000 evangelical Christians who attend the Bethesda Missionary Center church in Bogota, Colombia. It marked the fortieth day of captivity for their pastor, Jorge Enrique Gomez, kidnapped on Valentine’s Day by a band of heavily armed men.
On October 16, 2000, twenty-one-year-old Liu Haitao from Henan province in central China died as the result of severe police beatings. Although the immediate cause of his death was a kidney ailment that flared up after police mistreatment and a harsh imprisonment, there is no question his death was the result of his witness for Christ, which makes him a martyr for the faith. Local Christians in the area plan to observe October 16 as a memorial day to the life of the young Christian.
Evangelical Christians blamed for the unrest in Vietnam’s Central Highlands in early February have been abducted, tortured and prevented from worshipping together by security police, according to reports from the region.
Four security police from Gaziantep’s anti-terrorism division raided a Turkish Christian’s home on the night of April 11, placing him under arrest for five days pending investigation of accusations against him.
Two Christians were sent to jail yesterday for seven days on charges of “disobeying the police” in the town of Ismailly, 120 miles west of the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
The leader of a Kenyan “Jesus” film team ministry supported by churches and individuals through Christian Aid narrowly survived a murder attempt April 3. However, three neighbors who rushed to his aid in the 3 a.m. attack were shot and killed by the attackers.
The wife and children of Baptist prisoner Shageldy Atakov in Turkmenistan have been told by the local mullah, administration officials and officers of the country’s political police, the KNB (former KGB), that they may not believe in Jesus Christ and must convert to Islam. According to a statement from local Baptists — passed on to Keston News Service by the German-based Friedensstimme mission — officials in the town of Kaakhka, close to Turkmenistan’s southern border with Iran, also warned Atakov’s wife, Artygyul, that the family home would be confiscated if Christians continue to meet there.
A fundamentalist Hindu mob attacked a church in the eastern Indian state of Tripura on February 25. Church leaders say the Krishnanagar Baptist Church in the capital Agartala was attacked as Christians were attending the Sunday service. The mob forced the pastor to stop the service.
Police in Pakistan’s Punjab province registered another questionable blasphemy case against one of its Christian citizens on April 1, jailing a respected high school principal for slander he allegedly spoke two months ago against Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. Pervaiz Masih, founding director of the Iqbal Memorial High School in Chelay Kay village near Sialkot, was arrested at his home on April 1 during a late-night police raid.
ISTANBUL, April 7 (Compass) — Two Turkish Christians imprisoned near Izmir for a month on concocted charges of insulting Islam were ordered released March 30, after prosecution witnesses admitted that local gendarmarie officials pressured them to sign prepared complaints.
The continued detention of 24 American aviators by the Chinese government should come as no surprise to Washington.
“The Chinese government is demonstrating its true color and unfortunately that color is Red,” says The Voice of the Martyrs spokesman Gary Lane.
A top leader of Timothy Training Institute in Mozambique was murdered Sunday in a robbery in Maputo.
AUSTIN, Texas, March 24 (Compass) — An evangelical Peruvian village leader was executed March 20 after Marxist guerrillas declared him guilty of taking part in police and military activities.
Work is underway to resettle Indonesian Christians rescued from violence that continues in this country’s Molucca Islands, while thousands more remain to be rescued.
SANTA ANA, CA (March 13, 2001) — One Christian was seriously injured and 35 more were hospitalized when about 100 Buddhist extremists assaulted the congregation of the Sanasum Sevana (New Life) Christian Center as they prayed on Sunday morning, February 18. The church is located in Nurwarawatte, near Hinguragoda, 220 kilometers northeast of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
Legislation designed to further the United States’ involvement in helping end a Sudanese campaign marked by religious persecution has been reintroduced in Congress.
One Christian was seriously injured and 35 more were hospitalized when about 100 Buddhist extremists assaulted the congregation of the Sanasum Sevana (New Life) Christian Center as they prayed on Sunday morning, February 18. The church is located in Nurwarawatte, near Hinguragoda, 220 kilometers northeast of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.