A pastor in Nepal has lost his appeal against conviction on false charges of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity and will now spend a year in prison, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Nepal is no longer officially a Hindu state, but Nepalese Christians are subjected to persecution from radical Hindu groups who want the country to return to Hinduism.
A plaintiff in Malaysia who converted to Islam to marry a Muslim woman has been told by a civil high court that he cannot now renounce his Islamic identity and return to his original identity as a Christian, Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reports.
Authorities in southern Laos have told dozens of Christian converts to leave their homes because their faith goes against “the dominant village religious belief in animism or traditional spirits cults,” Christians told Worthy News Thursday.
Christian villagers in southern Laos have been threatened with detention and “huge fines” if they continue their church services, well-informed Christians told Worthy News.
A large group of around 50 Muslims conducted an anti-Christian protest at a shophouse church in Depok City, Indonesia, last month, angrily shouting and pushing against the fence surrounding the building, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
US Christian groups are urgently calling for Congress to address Myanmar’s military junta’s ongoing persecution of Christians, Baptist News Global (BNG) reports. Ruled by the Buddhist extremist Tatmadaw army, which overthrew the country’s democratically elected government in a military coup in 2021, Myanmar ranks 14th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
There have been 525 attacks by Hindu nationalists against Christians across India this year alone, Christian Today (CT) reports. Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, India ranks 11TH on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Bowing to pressure from Hindu extremists, and with no evidence or witnesses, authorities in India’s Uttar Pradesh state charged Pastor Bajarang Rawat with forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity, and jailed him for 23 days before releasing him on bail, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
A Christian couple remains in jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province as a judge decided to keep them behind bars for allegedly desecrating the Koran, deemed a holy book by Muslims, sources told Worthy News.
In a move perceived by local church leaders as hostility toward Christianity, authorities in India’s Madhya Pradesh state have refused to renew the permit of Christian orphanage to receive international charitable funding, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
A Christian couple in Punjab Province, Pakistan have been charged and detained under the country’s notoriously harsh blasphemy laws, just weeks after mobs of Islamic extremists attacked more than 80 Christian homes and churches in the region, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
Concerns remained Sunday about a pastor in eastern Pakistan who was reportedly detained for “faking” a shooting incident, although Worthy News and others witnessed him in hospital.
The Indonesian Bethel Church Solagracia in Padang, West Sumatra has reported that a service it held in a rented home on August 29 was disrupted by neighbors who broke a window while threatening them and demanding they stop worshiping, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Pakistani Christian human rights activist Samuel Inayat, who was in urgent need of a kidney transplant after Muslim extremists beat him, has died, his family told Worthy News on Saturday.
A 9-year-old Christian boy in Pakistan’s Punjab province and his family have reportedly fled their home after he was “falsely accused” of blasphemy against Islam and beaten up by his teacher and fellow students.
In what appears to be a growing trend of violent hostility toward Christianity in Nepal, seven churches in Lumbini Province were attacked in the last two weeks alone, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. The population of Nepal is 80.19% Hindu and 1.76% Christian, with numerous other minority religions represented.
Uncertainty remained Thursday about the plight of four youths after a Pakistani court sentenced them to death for committing “blasphemy” against Islam on social media, several sources said.
Members of a house church in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia, were placed in extreme danger by Muslim relatives of their landlord, who broke up their worship service by threatening to kill them with a machete last month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
The tribal Christian Kuki-Zo community in India’s Manipur state continues to face deadly attacks from extremist members of the Hindu majority Meitei community, despite recent military interventions, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
Church leaders in Pakistan have petitioned the Lahore High Court for a “thorough and transparent” independent judicial investigation after police illegally arrested Christians instead of the Muslim perpetrators of violent anti-Christian riots which took place in Faisalabad District last month, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.