Christian Persecution – Asia

A caller identifying himself as an Islamic terrorist has threatened to kill a Christian convert from Islam in the southern state of Kerala.

Two Christian pastors, who had been found guilty in Australia’s Victoria State of “vilifying Muslims”, have had a ruling in their favor Thursday, December 14, from the Court of Appeal.

Thousands of people belonging to the predominantly Christian Karen as well as Karenni and Shan ethnic groups were hiding in Burma’s jungle areas Saturday, December 9, as government forces continued their largest offensive in a decade, killing at least dozens of people in recent months, several sources told BosNewsLife.

Police in Honavar, a coastal town in Karnataka state on Tuesday (December 5) arrested Chandrashekar Naik, a member of the Hindu extremist group Bajrang Dal, for assaulting a Christian evangelist. Later that day, Bajrang Dal members seized two other Christians in the town, marched them to the police station and accused them of attempted forcible conversion.

There was mounting concern Tuesday, December, 5, about what at least one advocacy group described as a “huge increase” in attacks against Christians in India, where Hindu and some Muslim groups are apparently fighting the spread of Christianity.

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced two Islamic extremists to death for murdering Dr. Abdul Gani Gomes, a Christian convert from Islam, in September 2004.

Police in the eastern state of Jharkhand have turned a blind eye to the plight of two Christian families who were severely beaten and expelled from their village for refusing to give up their faith.

A district court in Punjab state has summoned a police official for severely beating four Christians.

Two Pakistani Christian men spent another day in prison Monday, November 27, after a court jailed them for 10 years on charges of “blasphemy” against the Quran, considered a holy book by Muslims.

Anti-Christian violence “is escalating” in Sri Lanka amid ongoing fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels seeking independence, human rights investigators said Monday, November 27.

Police in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu were investigating Monday, November 27, the death of a church worker who was apparently killed at the start of a Sunday worship service.

An Asian human rights team has condemned Philippines government for what it says is “its utter failure” to look into the killings of Christian leaders, rights activists, journalists and others by security forces and prosecute those involved, BosNewsLife established Friday, November 24.

Ranjha Masih, who was Pakistan’s longest held Christian prisoner of conscience, underwent surgery Saturday, November 25, after he was rushed to a private hospital to receive treatment for diabetes– one of many ailments of which he suffers following years of torture and abuse, friends said.

Adherents of a Bodo tribal religion in Assam, northeast India, forced nine families from their homes last Tuesday (November 14) for converting to Christianity.

Two unidentified militants today killed a Christian convert from Islam on a busy road in Mamoosa village, Barmullah district, in the terror-stricken state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Buddhist militants attacked two church services in Sri Lanka on November 12 and hit Christian workers returning from a funeral. On Thursday (November 16), they also doused a female church member with a container of burnt oil.

A Brazilian missionary was murdered in Dili, as new fighting flared in the capital of East Timor late on Sunday, Nov.19 according to a U.N. spokeswoman and a government statement said on Monday, November 20, 2006.

Armed and drunken Muslims struck two greeters at a Sunday evening service of a church outside Lahore last week, later returning to pelt the building with stones and bricks.

Muslim extremists in West Java attempted to murder a Christian lecturer in mid-October for converting from Islam three years ago.

As US President George W. Bush and 20 other leaders began their lavish Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi’s new $260 million National Convention Center Saturday, November 18, hundreds of Christians, pro-democracy activists and homeless people remained jailed or under police surveillance “to be hidden” from the world’s attention, dissidents told BosNewsLife.