XUCHANG, Henan (China Aid) — Officials imposed a hefty fine on impoverished Christians in China’s central Henan province recently, threatening their future opportunities to hold future services. The leaders of an unregistered village church in Xuzhou, Henan, were visited by local officials and told them that they owed the government 20,000 yuan ($3,154.20 USD) for building […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A 12-year-old Pakistani Christian girl, who disappeared in November, was abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry her abductor, according to her father. Elisha, daughter of Iqbal Masih, appeared in the High Court in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, on Thursday Feb. 8, where she introduced herself by a new Muslim name, […]
(Open Doors USA) — “Pray with me that one day I’ll be able to go back to my hometown and testify to the people about my faith in the Lord.” This is Vang Atu*’s prayer. Vang Atu, a 28-year-old father to two kids, was the first Christian convert in his village in Vietnam (#18 on […]
JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – A court in Sudan has fined seven church leaders fighting a takeover of their school in Omdurman for “objection to authorities,” a church leader said. The court yesterday (Feb. 5) found Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) elder Yohanna Tia guilty under articles 182/183 for objection to authorities and […]
(Morning Star News) – In a village in eastern Uganda, it took no more than a day for Munabi Abudallah to lose his wife and seven children after putting his faith in Christ. “The Muslims are searching to kill me,” Abudallah, 37, told Morning Star News by phone. “My family members have deserted me. I […]
(World Watch Monitor) — The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has asked for clarification over how Russia applies its religion law to foreign citizens, reports news agency Interfax. The case that triggered their interest was that of an Evangelical Christian of Indian descent, who was one of the first people to be deported under […]
(World Watch Monitor) — The body of Gideon Periyaswamy, 43-year-old pastor of the church of Maknayeem in Adayachery village, in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, was found hanging from the roof of his house on Jan. 20. Church congregation members who discovered his body described his knees bent to the floor and his body hanging […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A Pakistani Christian, who fell ill after inhaling poisonous gases at work, died on Saturday (Jan. 20) after three days on a life-support machine. Shahzad Masih, 24, who leaves a wife and two young children, worked as a sewer cleaner in the Korangi area of the southern city of Karachi, as […]
Nepal (Mission Network News) – In 2015, Nepal changed its constitution to become a secular nation with the freedom of religion. However, in October, Nepal’s President Bidhya Dev Bhandari signed a Criminal Code Bill into law. This law, known as the anti-conversion law, makes religious conversion illegal and punishable by five years in prison and […]
(World Watch Monitor) — A Nigerian university student who converted from Islam to Christianity has been arrested by state security forces, as has the man who introduced her to Christianity. Nabila Umar Sanda, 19, is a student at Bingham University in Karu, in the central state of Nasarawa, which is owned by one of Nigeria’s […]