Indonesia (Mission Network News) – Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List was recently released. Indonesia was previously ranked #38 on the list of the most severe places for Christians to live. But on the new list, it was ranked as #30. Forgotten Missionaries International’s Bruce Allen says Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim majority nation, […]
(International Christian Concern) – Gospel for Asia (GFA), a ministry that has been serving the least of these in Asia since 1979, has issued an urgent prayer appeal on behalf of one of its field-partner workers who was abducted at gunpoint in Myanmar. On January 19, five people forced Pastor Tun Nu to leave his […]
Iran (Mission Network News) — Amid news of Iran’s deepening economic woes, a new report describes the regime’s continued crackdown on Christians. Violations of the Rights of Christians in Iran 2018 was compiled by Article 18, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Middle East Concern, and Open Doors International. It begins by listing rights and freedoms guaranteed by […]
(World Watch Monitor) — In what might be a first-ever, a Pakistani lower court in mid-January acquitted a Christian of blasphemy after a three-year trial for lack of evidence against him. However, before his arrest on the false charge, Pervaiz Masih’s wife was brutally tortured by the police as they sought to find out where […]
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Muslim policemen on Saturday, Jan. 19 beat and arrested a Christian man on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya in retaliation for refusing to recant Christianity, his relatives said. Accompanied by two Muslims of Somali descent who had attacked him previously, the policemen arrived at the home where Hassan (surname […]
Malaysia (Mission Network News) – In February 2017, there was a dramatic story coming out of Malaysia: a military-precision kidnapping of Pastor Raymond Koh. The kidnap was caught on CCTV and shocked the nation. It prompted an urgent cry to find Pastor Koh before something happened to him. For a couple days, the headlines were […]
(Bitter Winter) — In China, Communist Party members have always been prohibited from holding religious beliefs. Last August, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities incorporated this conventional principle into the newly revised “Disciplinary Regulations of the Chinese Communist Party,” increasing the level of punishment for party members with religious belief or sympathies. To promote these […]
(Morning Star News) – Having fled Sudan after authorities tortured and threatened to kill him if he refused to return to Islam, a Sudanese Christian now faces death threats in Egypt. Unknown Muslims in Cairo began threatening him for his faith in Christ last year, 40-year-old Al Hadi Izzalden Shareef Osman said. In a country […]
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Hard-line Hindus on Jan. 9 tore down a church building in southern India because it was built on the west side of a village, which they said violated Hindu principles of placement and positioning, sources said. The Vastu Shastra architectural and planning principles, a Hindu version of Feng Shui, were said to oppose […]
SANTA ANA, Calif. — A watchdog organization that releases a report each year on the global persecution of Christians has again named North Korea as the most dangerous place to live as a Christian—for the 18th year in a row, followed by Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya and Pakistan. Open Doors USA released its “World Watch List” […]