World in Brief

A Christian convert from Islam whose Muslim wife charged him with inciting her to change her religion won a final court battle in April, after losing her to divorce in March.

The man, who had been arrested, said that his then wife had been manipulated by her brothers. She had been upset when her former husband and other Christians had sung a Christian song and talked about Jesus whilst in someone else’s home.

In early April, the government of the Cayman Islands won the right to appeal a Supreme Court judgment, to resist the introduction of same-sex marriage.

On March 29, same-sex marriage was ruled as legal on the British overseas territory after a couple challenged the Island’s law in court. The lesbian couple who brought the case to court had planned to marry in April, but no decision on the legal challenge is due to be made until later in the summer.

Christians were ordered by police on 23 April to stop holding services in a building they have been using as a church.

This came amid local reports of Muslims being stirred up to attack the building because it was not licensed for worship. The 1,500 Christian families in Mit-Nama, north of Cairo, had only recently bought the building. The closure left them with no other place to worship.

In the small village of Narayanapatna, Odisha state, five Christian families were banished by their community, it was reported in April.

After the families converted to Christianity, Hindu villagers confronted them, demanding that they either leave their homes or renounce their Christian faith. The families refused to deny Christ. This is increasingly common in Odisha state.

At Easter, a church pastor found everything inside his church building burned as he opened it for worship.

On Easter Sunday morning the congregation discovered that everything had been gathered into one place and set on fire. Furthermore, a notice on the outside of the building read ‘Jai Sri Ram [Hail, lord Ram]’. The service, however, still went ahead. When the pastor filed a report to the police, officers told him not to mention the fire, but only that the building was vandalised. The pastor said he regretted complying with their instructions.

A Christian prayer meeting was attacked by Hindu nationalists on 3 May for the second time in a few months.

Six men aged between 21 and 38, who belong to a Hindu nationalist group known as Hindu Munani, disrupted the meeting and threatened Pastor Philip Rangasamy, who heads the church. The men then threatened to kill Christians if they continued praying. They assaulted them and hand and head injuries were sustained. Items belonging to the church, including Bibles and song books, were destroyed.

Police in southern Laos arrested, beat, and detained a man in Savannakhet province for practicing his Christian faith.

The man said that while he was imprisoned, the police tried to force him to renounce his faith, but he refused. He was then harshly beaten, and slapped to the point that he became unable to hear.

A schoolgirl who has been unable to go to school since her family was forcibly displaced from their home because of their religion, met with government officials on 30 April to draw attention to religious minority children in the country whose right to education is being violated.

The meeting with members of the federal government was the first of its kind discussing how religious discrimination affects children and their access to education in Mexico. The girl was given an apology by the government. The families were displaced due to their Protestant faith.

The Dang District Court released four Christians who were arrested on 23 April on false allegations of proselytism in Ghorahi.

Initial reports suggested that the Christians had been arrested on allegations of conversion, however it emerged that they were accused of proselytism. The police investigation is ongoing. However, the court concluded that the allegations of proselytism against the four were not proven. The matter has not been discharged by the court yet. Investigations will continue to determine if there was proselytism, which is illegal under Nepal’s penal code.

On 27 April, hundreds of family members and sympathisers attended a funeral for eight young Christians (six of them minors). They were killed when an off-duty security officer drove his vehicle into their Easter procession on 21 April.

The officer, from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, reportedly had angry words with leaders of the Christian procession that delayed him and a passenger from proceeding at a road junction. Although let through, the driver did a U-turn, switched off his lights, and rammed the procession from behind.

Police declared Farhan Aziz innocent of blasphemy and released him after eight months in custody on 1 May.

Aziz was accused of sending blasphemous text messages, which he denied. Such a charge would normally result in execution. As a result, the police told him it may not be safe for him to return home. His girlfriend’s family has objected to her relationship with him. It was widely reported that her brother and a local Imam used the phone to send the blasphemous messages in order to incriminate him.

A couple have been facing execution for five years on charges of sending blasphemous texts despite both being illiterate.

Shafqat Masih and Shagufta Kousar were sentenced in 2014 after a Muslim complained that he had received six texts that were blasphemous. The charges brought were of both ‘insulting the Qur’an’ and ‘insulting the Prophet’. The police had obtained confessions from Shafqat, which both defendants claim were given under duress. He said he confessed to ’save his wife.’ Shagufta said her National Identity Card was stolen by a friend of the complainant, and this had been used to purchase the SIM used to send the messages. These were sent in English, but the couple were both illiterate.

The 1953 ban on abortion was ruled unconstitutional, it was reported in April.

The country’s constitutional court ordered that the law must be revised by the end of 2020. The law was reviewed after a challenge from a female doctor who was prosecuted for performing abortions. However, South Korea is home to a large number of evangelical Christians, and many want abortion to remain illegal because they say it forces women to think deeply about life.

On 9 May, a Christian pastor was deported from Turkey without official reason.

Mike Platt had been a pastor in Istanbul for 21 years. He left the country on 2 April and was informed by passport control that an entry ban had been issued. After trying to re-enter in May, Platt was deported after overnight detention at the airport. Turkey does not recognise the right of Christians to train their own religious workers, so many pastors are non-Turkish nationals.

Yusuf Tulo, a convert from Islam, and his family lost their home to fire on 28 April.

Tulo had received threatening messages from Muslims for months. Since the fire, the family have been living with friends and neighbours in intense fear for their lives. Among the threats he has received, one text message read: ‘The burning of the house was just a warning. If you continue hardening your hearts and fail to return to Islam, then expect a worse thing that you have never seen before’. Muslim extremists began throwing stones at their houses at night soon after the family embraced Christ.

Alabama State Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill into law that would make abortion a felony and put abortionists in prison for life for killing the unborn.

The bill was supported by an overwhelming majority of both chambers in the state legislature. Women who have abortions would not be criminalised, rather those performing the abortion. Abortion would only be legal if done to save the mother’s life. The bill can be challenged in a court over the next six months before it becomes law. Where similar bills have been proposed, the state ends up paying the court costs of the winning party i.e. abortion providers, when the bills are defeated in court as has always been the case.