These articles were first published in our March edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
A Christian, who had received and reposted a cartoon of the prophet of Islam on his Facebook account in 2017, has been imprisoned after the post resurfaced.
The father of four young children has been sentenced to five years in prison after being arrested, released, and rearrested. His pastor said: ‘It is a tragedy for us and for his family. He was naive in accepting this cartoon on his Facebook account. That this story goes back three years and only now it’s resurfacing – it’s hard to digest.’
A patent filed by Huawei for a system that identifies the faces of ethnic Uighurs has been uncovered by US researchers.
It lists ‘attributes’ that can be used to target specific individuals, including ethnicity. The discovery follows Huawei’s reported testing of automated ‘Uighur alert’ facial ‘attribute recognition’ software capable of identifying ethnic Uighurs from surveillance images and sending an alert message to police. Huawei plans to alter the patent.
Chinese government officials have raided a house in Chengdu where children of Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC) were being home educated.
Education bureau administrators, national security officials, police officers and urban management agents surrounded the home at 7am and then invaded the property while children were playing together. Government agents took the personal belongings of one of the church’s members. ‘Please pray,’ the church said in a Facebook post. The Chinese Government has long persecuted the 5,000-member ERCC as well as a sister church their congregation planted.
Calls have been made for the release of a Cuban pastor, Karel Parra Rosabal, who has been arrested and detained for three weeks.
The pastor reportedly spent the first two days of detention incommunicado and on hunger strike. Pastor Parra Rosabal is the leader of the unregistered Fuego y Dinámica Apostolic Church in Jobabo. Although he was falsely accused of ‘hoarding’, Cuban police told him that he was being arrested ‘so that you learn that illegal churches in Cuba are not allowed’.
A draft law could ask all religious groups to translate sermons into Danish and submit them to the government.
Most sermons preached in mosques are in Arabic, and the government has promised to improve control of radical Islamist groups whose teachings clash with their democratic values. Evangelicals suggested that ‘legislators should seek constitutionally-appropriate ways to explore the impact of religious practice on society’. They also noted that the burden on German-speaking evangelicals to translate all their services may become unbearable.
At least 100 people, many of whom are Christians, have been killed in just four weeks by an Islamic extremist group.
An Islamic group with an expansionist agenda were behind the attacks on the predominantly Christian communities. An Open Doors spokesperson said: ‘It is a reminder of what is happening in other parts of the central Sahel region. The ideology, the agenda of establishing a ‘caliphate’ in the region, and the way they operate is the same, and we can see how they afflict terrible suffering on innocent people.’
Information will be put on police files about the faith and political opinions of people who could be a threat to national security.
The Interior Ministry issued three decrees that allow the collection of information about political opinions and philosophical or religious convictions of individuals followed by the government for representing potential threats to the state. Social media views will also be collected. The National Council of Evangelicals in France said: ‘This alerts us about the fragility of the fundamental rights that we thought had been acquired in France.’
Police are searching for six Al Shabaab jihadists who held up a commuter bus when looking for Christian passengers.
The terrorists fired a shot in the air and ordered all passengers off the bus. A police report noted that ‘they ask[ed] whether they carry non-locals [Christians] in their buses. The militants warned the driver not to carry any non-locals (likely to be Christians) on his bus.
Minority Christians displaced by conflict have formed their own village outside of Yangon and named it Baythala – Bethel -the Biblical town that served as a refuge for those in need.
After months of travelling hundreds of miles, a group of about 80 Christians settled on a small plot of land in Yangon’s Hmawbi Township and formed their own village. Led by Kan Lwat, he said: ‘It means Jesus was blessing and helping people in trouble with this place, which will be peaceful.’
A professor at a Christian university has reportedly been released after being kidnapped.
John Fatokun, Professor of Computational Mathematics and Numerical Analysis and Deputy Vice Chancellor of Anchor University in Lagos, was released two days after being kidnapped. ‘Despite the experience, my faith remains unshakeable,’ said Fatokun. ‘We will continue to work, pray, and raise godly men and women who are destined to change the narratives and make Nigeria a better place for the generations ahead.’
A Christian father has begged the police to find his kidnapped daughter, but found they ridiculed him rather than help.
Rafique Masih said Muhammad Hamza forcefully entered his home and kidnapped Mashal with the help of two of his companions. Rafique, said that when he went to the police station, instead of registering a case against the kidnapper, police officers ridiculed him and intentionally delayed registering the case. Rafique has accused the police of deliberately delaying recovering his daughter because he is Christian.
A Christian girl is threatening to burn herself if she doesn’t get justice from the police against her kidnappers.
According to her parents, the police are uncooperative and aren’t registering a case to arrest the kidnappers. The family have no means to bride them, or hire a lawyer. The girl was drugged and raped for three days after she was kidnapped and called ‘chori’, a derogatory term used against Pakistani Christians. She was also forcefully converted and married.
Muslim villagers have attacked the wife and children of a pastor who is still receiving hospital treatment for a previous assault.
Nearly four weeks after the first assault three men broke into their home, injuring two of the children and the mother of eight who was recovering from the prior beating. One attacker strangled the mother, whilst another threw one of the children through a window. ‘The assailants left behind a Somali sword, which I think they possibly had planned to use to rape and then kill me,’ said the mother.
Mansitula Buliro has been beaten and lost her unborn child after she shared a vision of Jesus she was given during evening prayers.
Her husband got hold of a Qur’an and started casting out the evil spirit which he thought had entered her as she talked of hearing Jesus’ name. Later she heard a voice saying: ‘Today I have chosen you to be mine’. With a neighbour, she put her faith in Christ, and told her husband, who then beat her again. Her baby died a few days later.
en has heard encouraging reports from Christians in the Ukraine where closed churches have resulted in online growth.
Online services have led to people gathering for services and conversation for up to five hours. A prayer group saw a 30% increase in its numbers joining. Pastors have been travelling around the groups from each church as they gather together, providing personal support. One believer commented: ‘Churches shining light into the darkness is not predicated on keeping church buildings open.’
Christian groups have greeted with dismay President Biden’s signing of an executive order which will allow biological males to use the changing rooms of females, and compete in women’s sports.
Shortly after Biden signed the executive order, the hashtag #BidenErasedWomen began trending on Twitter. Political liberals who tweeted concerns about the legal rights of women being dismissed were accused by trans rights supporters of being propped up by ‘US conservative Christians’.
The family of Ravi Zacharius has refused to release a woman from a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Lori Anne Thompson, who alleged the late apologist Ravi Zacharias sexually exploited her, came to an out-of-court settlement with Zacharias, but was bound by the NDA. Her allegations came six years before the misconduct that was confirmed by lawyers working for the Zacharias estate in late 2020. Zacharias himself broke the agreement when he issued a statement about Thompson’s allegations in 2017.