World in Brief

Licences were granted to 70 churches in Egypt on 19 May, as the work on behalf of the committee overseeing the process continued during the coronavirus lockdown.

The committee’s approval of this 16th batch of licences brings the number of churches granted official recognition to 1,638 out of the original 3,730 that applied for registration. A total of 2,092 churches are still waiting to be granted licences under the Law for Building and Restoring Churches, introduced in September 2016.

An online protest was launched on 28 May against the continuing repression of freedom of religion or belief in Eritrea.

The annual protest usually takes place outside the Eritrean embassy in London, but took place online in light of lockdown restrictions in the UK. The event was hosted by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Church in Chains (Ireland), the Eritrean Orthodox Church in the UK, Human Rights Concern – Eritrea, and Release Eritrea. It included a one-hour prayer service and contributions from special guests including Lord Alton.

Eight Christians were arrested in India and accused of violating a coronavirus lockdown order while they were preparing aid packages for the poor, a pastor said.

The policemen used vulgar language and one of the church members sustained an injury because of being beaten. The police accused them of violating a social-distancing order by holding a worship meeting. Pastor Kumar said the officers acted on complaints and ignored his plea to give an explanation.

Three Christian families in India had their homes broken into by a group of Hindu nationalists on 20 May.

Approximately 15 attackers entered the families’ homes while they were asleep and beat them, causing serious harm, including head injuries, to at least four people. According to local sources, their assailants had warned them never to return to the village again. No one has been arrested, which has raised serious concerns about the reliability of local police and their willingness to act.

Tribal mobs in Jharkhand state threatened the lives of 16 Christian families every night for nearly three weeks, a pastor reported in May.

Armed with clubs, the persecutors said the believers would all be killed unless they returned to the animistic Sarna religion. Two families were terrorised into reconverting, the pastor said.

Four Christian converts were released on bail in May.

They were initially arrested in February, reportedly in relation to their membership of a house church. On 14 May they were sent to Lakan Prison after failing to meet bail requirements. The exact charges against them remain unclear.

In May it was reported that Pastor Isak Nieman was warned for violating anti-coronavirus measures.

This occurred after a raid on a Baptist church which was meeting for worship in Pavlodar during coronavirus restrictions. However, after the warning, which Nieman accepted, he was fined nearly two months’ wages on a second charge of leading an unregistered religious community meeting for worship without state permission.

A pastor who was abducted from his home at gunpoint by Buddhist militants in January 2019, and reported killed, was released alive in March.

Pastor Tun N, who is now reunited with his family, said his captivity was ‘the most hellish time of my life, be it spiritually, mentally and, in particular, physically’. This came weeks before the abduction of another pastor, a father of five, who is thought to still be in captivity.

The abductor of a Christian 13-year-old, who was kidnapped in southern Nigeria and trafficked to Kano state where she was forcibly converted and obliged to ‘marry’ her abductor, was charged on 21 May.

He was acquitted on the first count of conspiracy to commit abduction, but sentenced to five years and seven years for the other counts: trafficking, illicit intercourse, sexual exploitation and unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor.

The long-awaited National Commission for Minorities, inaugurated in Pakistan on 5 May, is being seen as an important step towards greater religious liberty and equality.

The terms of reference for the minorities commission include ensuring that non-Muslim communities’ places of worship are preserved and kept in a functional condition. The commission will also seek to amend laws that are reported to discriminate against religious minorities. The commission will have 12 ‘non-official’ members including three Christians, three Hindus, two Muslims, two Sikhs, and one representative from each of the Parsi and Kalash communities.

A 24-year-old, who was converted in May after listening to Christian radio programmes, is now in hospital after being severely beaten and burned by her Muslim father.

Rehema Kyomuhendo was travelling with her father to eastern Uganda when she first heard about Jesus Christ. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, they could not return and had to stay with her aunt. Rehema’s father tried to kill her when he overheard her expressing joy about being saved over the telephone. Her aunt and a Christian neighbour managed to get Rehema to hospital.

A leading family advocacy group in the US released a report in May which extensively documents the radical, explicit content and significant changes that have occurred in public schools nationwide regarding comprehensive sex education.

The Family Research Council’s report outlines how sex education is taught to children and why parents ought to be alert and concerned. Lessons include ‘how to’ sex workshops, and ‘fake abstinence’ – abstaining from sex until the next steady boyfriend or girlfriend. The report also says the curriculum promotes how minors can obtain abortions and hide it from their parents.