COCHABAMBA, Bolivia, May 15 (Compass) — In mid April, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) forced 11 evangelical Protestant churches in Arauquita, a town near Colombia’s border with Venezuela, to suspend public worship services.
BANGALORE, India (Compass) — The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Organization, VHP) is secretly conducting large-scale conversion drives in India’s Marxist-ruled state of West Bengal. More than 16 tribal Christians were forced to re-convert to Hinduism on April 22 at a purification ceremony in Chopra village in the Malda district about 300 kilometers from Calcutta, NGO sources said. Ten other animist tribals were also converted to Hinduism in the village.
The rape of a 16-year-old girl in Pakistan has been ignored by police because of her religious beliefs.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The revelation by North Korea that it had engaged in a clandestine operation to develop nuclear weapons, contrary to promises made to the Clinton administration in 1994, thrust the Asian nation again into the news. However, many in the United States have had the communist nation on their minds and in their prayers for years for its shoddy record in human rights.
It was launched Sept. 12 in Scottsdale, Ariz., by sculptor William Hunter to pray daily for President Bush, his cabinet and the nation in the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attacks. Now, six months after the tragic events that dampened the spirits of millions around the world, the Presidential Prayer Team has blossomed into 1,007,059 committed members.
ANN ARBOR, MI) – In the same week that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, a federal lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Monday after Christian students across California were forced to pretend they were Muslims for three weeks, praying in the name of Allah the Compassionate the Merciful, chanting Praise to Allah, picking a Muslim name from a list to replace their own name and to stage their own Jihad via a dice game.
A prisoner who has spent nearly ten years behind bars in Peru for terrorist crimes he did not commit has now had to wait an additional three months for the result of his appeal.
WASHINGTON (BP)–The considerable influence of American Christians can make a difference in the lives of persecuted believers in North Korea and Sudan, participants at a May 1 summit on the issue were told.
The treatment of Chinese Christians–who now outnumber Chinese Communist Party members–must be placed near the top of the agenda when President Bush meets Friday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
The treatment of Chinese Christians–who now outnumber Chinese Communist Party members–must be placed near the top of the agenda when President Bush meets Friday with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
AUSTIN, Texas (Compass) — Guerrillas manning a roadblock near Medellin kidnapped an associate church pastor as he returned with a group of church members on Sunday, April 28, from an afternoon baptismal service, reported the head of that city’s pastoral alliance.
ISTANBUL, July 1 (Compass) — Another Christian was sentenced to death in Pakistan two days ago, joining Ayub Masih in the line-up of Pakistani Christians on death row for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
ISTANBUL, September 9 (Compass) — In the wake of two more deadly terrorist attacks against Christian institutions in Pakistan in early August, government security officials have advised local church leaders to arm themselves for possible assaults by Muslim extremists.
“What’s needed is …something analogous to the ancient acropolis, where today’s diversity of national and ethnic customs and religious traditions can be celebrated and upheld for the enrichment of everybody….The new acropolises will… provide opportunity for sacred expression needed to bind the people of the planet into a viable, meaningful, and sustainable solidarity.”[2] [Dean James Morton, Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements]
YUNNAN PROVINCE, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (ANS) — Christian Solidarity Worldwide is raising urgent concern for a group of North Koreans who are in the process of being sent back to North Korea, where they are in danger of execution.
ABUJA, Nigeria (Compass) — Muslim leaders aim to eradicate Christianity in northern Nigeria, says Nigeria’s Defense Minister, Lt. General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma. Danjuma told a gathering of the Northern (Nigeria) Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) on April 20 in Abuja, the federal capital, that Christians are now under severe pressure. He urged the Christian leaders assembled at the All Saints Anglican Church not to be intimidated.
Christians in the Plateau State of central Nigeria have been killed and forced from their land by extremist Islamic militants.
Attacks have been mounted against Christians in the area surrounding Jos, leaving several dead and many more wounded and displaced.
Indigenous Christian ministries in Myanmar (formerly Burma) continue to effectively proclaim the gospel despite pockets of severe persecution.
Christian ministries in Myanmar (formerly Burma) are dazed after being told to close their orphanages and other child-care and feeding programs for the poor.
DAKAR, SENEGAL (ANS) — A local Muslim politician at the head of a mob of young men stormed a church in Dakar on Sunday 23 May, insulting and assaulting Christian worshippers. The youths, armed with knives and stones, drove them out and occupied the building, the Barnabus Fund reports.