World in Brief

Tribal animists influenced by Hindu extremists in Chhattisgarh state, central India, have forced Christians to exhume the body of a 25-year-old man buried on relatives’ private land because they didn’t want a Christian interred in their village.

Laxman Markam had been dead for two days when about 50 residents of different villages, armed with axes and wooden clubs, forced his widow and brothers to exhume his body. The police were then called; they made the family re-bury the body in the same grave.

A Christian couple’s appeal against a seven-year prison sentence and a fine of almost £30,000 for ‘illegal business operations’ has been rejected.

Chang Yuchun and Li Chenhui, from Shaanxi province, operated a registered printing company. Last year the authorities seized more than 210,000 copies of various Christian books. 24 titles were deemed to be ‘illegal publications.’ This is the latest in a long line of Chinese Christians being jailed for printing Christian books.

A Nigerian Christian journalist faces prolonged imprisonment following his reporting of attacks against mainly Christian communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt and his criticism of the government’s response.

Luka Binniyat, who writes for the Epoch Times, has been charged with electronically transmitting information known ‘to be false’. His story was headlined ‘Police Decry Massacres As “Wicked” But Make No Arrests’ and it quoted Senator Danjuma Laah, who criticised Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan for concealing facts concerning a ‘genocide against Christians in southern Kaduna State’.

A Catholic student who was suspended from a football game after telling a classmate that ‘there are only two genders’ has taken legal action against a school in New Hampshire.

The student, who remains anonymous, was discussing with a friend the difficulty of addressing a non-binary person in Spanish while on the school bus, before being challenged by another student. The offender received a one-game suspension from his football team for ‘not respecting pronouns’. In Spanish, pronouns are female and male only; a ‘neutral’ pronoun does not exist.

The Nicaraguan Government has withdrawn the licence of Enlace Canal 21, the only Christian television channel in the country.

Officials from the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services, the regulatory body for such services, ostensibly visited Canal 21 to carry out a routine inspection. But later that day they cancelled its licence, even though the channel supplied proof it was operating correctly.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) reports that there were 980 hate crimes perpetrated against Christians across the continent in 2020 – an increase of 70% on 2019.

Crimes included some physical assaults and murders, although the most common were graffiti, vandalism and arson attacks against churches. Arson is a particular problem in France at present.

Between January and August 2021 at least 267 Nigerian Christians have been killed, 246 houses have been burned, and more than 20,000 hectares of farmland have been destroyed by Fulani Jihadists.

In the latest atrocity, Fulani Jihadists attacked more than 17 villages and killed 70 people. Fifteen Christian communities within the Zonzon and Zonkwa districts have been completely razed to the ground. The two main causes are that Islamist militant groups such as the Fulani Jihadists and Boko Haram are bent on eradicating Christianity, and dwindling grazing lands are forcing Fulani herdsmen into Christian communities.

Christian students in Egypt’s Minya Governorate were beaten up by teachers and fellow students after the headmaster of Al-Thawra school ordered all Christian students to remove any jewellery bearing a cross.

In one incident, a female teacher attacked a male Christian student, then encouraged other students to do the same and take his cross pendant and destroy it. Egyptian believers often tattoo crosses on their wrists or wear necklaces or bracelets with a cross.

A United Methodist Church pastor in Germany has been sentenced to two years’ probation and fined 1,500 euros for housing an Iranian refugee in one of the churches he oversees. He was found guilty of ‘aiding and abetting unauthorised residence’.

The Revd Stefan Schörk, who oversees churches in the German state of Bavaria, plans to appeal the verdict. The issue was that the Iranian immigrant would be deported to Greece, where he had first claimed asylum, which would have separated him from family members already living in Germany.

The Helsinki District Court is set to hear the censorship case concerning Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen and the Revd Dr Juhana Pohjola, an Evangelical Lutheran Bishop.

The MP and medical doctor, who is a mother of five and grandmother of seven, is accused of having engaged in ‘hate speech’ for having publicly voiced her opinion on marriage and human sexuality in a 2004 pamphlet, for comments made on a 2019 radio show and a 2019 Tweet directed at her church leadership.

Dr Pohjola is charged alongside her as the author of the booklet. The penalties could be two years in prison or fines. He says that if they lose, they will appeal the decision, and if necessary go the European Court of Human Rights.

Pastor Stephen Lugwire of the predominantly Muslim area of Nangonde, Uganda, has been killed by Islamic extremists for refusing to remove his church building.

While 58-year-old Lugwire was untying his sheep on his grazing land he was attacked by three men armed with knives. One said: ‘We have told you to remove the church which is near our mosque, but you have not heeded our message. Today you will face the wrath from Allah.’ Pastor Lugwire’s congregation has worshipped at the building for two years.

Myanmar’s military has arrested 18 medics for providing treatment to patients who were members of ‘terrorist organisations’, the term it uses for outlawed anti-junta groups.

The arrests followed a raid on a church in eastern Kayah state, where troops discovered 48 patients who were receiving treatment, seven suffering from Covid-19. The junta said the 18 medics arrested would be dealt with according to the law. Myanmar’s healthcare system has been close to collapse since the army coup in February. Many medical workers have joined the civil disobedience movement and are refusing to work in military-run hospitals.

A church in Oklahoma has forced a woman to leave the building after mistaking her bag of coriander and oregano for marijuana.

Ashley Ontiveros explained to members of the Redemption United Methodist Church (RUMC) that what they thought was marijuana was in fact herbs to garnish Mexican food. The meal was for Ontiveros’ sister, who is part of a Department of Corrections programme that allows inmates to attend Sunday services. RUMC later said that its policy had changed, no one now being allowed to bring in food for inmates.