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Afghan Christians calling for prayer and advocacy

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Afghan Christians are calling for prayer and international advocacy as they are now targets for intense, violent persecution by the new Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported Monday. The most recent call for prayer came through Mission Network News.

There are an estimated 8,000-12,000 Christians in Afghanistan are converts from Islam; the exact number of believers is not known as the church was persecuted and went underground even before the recent takeover of government by the Taliban.

Christian converts are now in even more danger as the Taliban are known to be particularly violent and murderous toward anyone who leaves Islam.

While the Afghan church remains underground, reports have filtered through that Christians have received threatening phone calls by unknown people saying “We are coming for you,” ICC said.

“We are telling people to stay in their houses because going out now is too dangerous,” an Afghan Christian leader, whose name has been withheld for security reasons, told ICC.

Rights group Release International has had a report that at least one Christian has been killed for having a Bible on his phone. “The Taliban have been checking phones to check if there are any Bibles downloaded onto their phones,” RI spokesman Andrew Boyd said in a statement. “We have a report that at least one [person] has been killed as a result of this.”