Christian Persecution – Asia

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.

Key pro-democracy activists, including Christians, remained jailed or under house arrest across Vietnam Thursday, November 16, as the government quelled dissent ahead of the arrival of American President George W. Bush, dissidents said.

South Korean pastor Kim U Sob, who has led the Love Presbyterian Church in the southern Kazakh town of Kyzyl-Orda [Qyzylorda] for the past eight years, has been forced to leave the country, Aleksandr Klyushev of the Association of Religious Communities of Kazakhstan told Forum 18 News Service. The local Migration Police refused to allow the pastor to extend his visa and remain in the country, after he was found guilty in June of carrying out “missionary work without registration.”

Over 800 Tamil Christians including children, were on their way home Wednesday, November 15, after escaping from Tamil rebels who kidnapped them in August amid ongoing fighting with Sri Lanka’s security forces, government officials claimed.

A suspected Muslim militant on Wednesday, November 15, admitted he was involved in the beheadings of three Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia last year and asked “forgiveness” from the families of the victims.

A day after the US removed Vietnam from it list of ‘countries of particular concern’ regarding religious freedom, human rights workers said a Montagnard Christian was “hanged” by security forces who also “tortured” and “detained” other believers and pro-democracy activists.

During a panchayat or village council meeting convened last Thursday (November 9) to address threats against Christians in a village in Chhattisgarh state, a local politician and his associates attacked six believers, including a pregnant woman.

In a worsening climate of impunity as Sri Lanka falls into civil war, Buddhist militants have continued their campaign against Christianity, attacking churches and threatening Christian schools.

Family members continued searching Monday, November 13, for a kidnapped Protestant missionary in Vietnam amid a government-crackdown on Protestants and pro-democracy activists ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit here, dissidents and investigators told BosNewsLife.

Pakistan’s longest jailed Christian prisoner of conscious was preparing for his release Saturday, November 11, following eight and a half years behind bars, after the Lahore High Court acquitted him of blasphemy charges.

The high court of India’s western state of Gujarat heard a counter complaint Monday, November 6, from eight Christian missionaries accused of forced conversion and attempted murder. The Christians said police tortured them after they were attacked by Hindu militants.

Hindu extremists yesterday forced Christians in the remote village of Bevainahalli, in the southern state of Karnataka, to bow down before Hindu deities and applied the vermilion mark to their foreheads. It was the second such incident in Chitradurga district in a little over a week.

There was concern Monday, November 6, about the whereabouts of four Christian youngsters amid reports they were detained more than a week ago in India’s southern state of Karnataka on charges of “forcible converting Hindus.”

Political dissidents in Vietnam were preparing for a difficult court case Friday, November 3, after officials said they would be charged with “terrorism” even after authorities made efforts to convince the United States that freedom of expression and religious liberty for Christians had improved in the Communist nation.

Leaders of one of India’s largest Hindu parties have urged the arrest and deportation of Christian missionaries, and several of them have been attacked in tribal areas, BosNewsLife established Wednesday, November 1.

A Pakistani Christian who spent over two years in jail for allegedly degrading Islam has died and there were fears he may have been tortured, fellow Christians said Monday, October 30.

Police last Friday (October 27) arrested a 25-year-old believer for “causing communal disharmony” after Hindu extremists harassed him for selling Christian literature at an evangelistic event in the eastern state of Orissa.

Vietnamese authorities advised the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi that 18 Vietnamese churches had been registered while not informing the churches themselves. Observers believe this is an indication that the country has stepped up efforts to convince the United States of improvements in its religious freedom record as two key U.S. decisions approach.

Two Christian believers in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh were recovering from their injuries Sunday, October 29, after angry villagers and militants were beating them for their refusal to return to Hinduism, their previous religion.