Christian Persecution

Christian Agencies Launch Persecuted Religious Minorities Forum

Support for persecuted religious minorities around the world has received new impetus this month following the inauguration of a strategic new network of UK Christian agencies. The Christian Forum in Support of Persecuted Religious Minorities Worldwide was launched at a London conference on 20th July 2002, which attracted nearly 200 participants. Agency backing for the group has come from a range of mission and human rights groups who are keen that membership is now widened to maximise the impact that the forum can have.

Sudanese Convert to Christianity Forced into Hiding

ISTANBUL, February 7 (Compass) — A Sudanese convert to Christianity was forced into hiding this week after severe beatings and torture by state security police, who for the second time refused to allow the former Muslim to leave Sudan through the Khartoum airport.

Sudanese Police Torture Convert Student

STANBUL, October 8 (Compass) — A Sudanese student who converted from Islam to Christianity was severely beaten and tortured by security police in Khartoum two weeks ago, apparently at his own family’s instigation.

Sudanese Refugees – Grace Under Fire

KAMPALA, UGANDA (ANS) — You can find them by following the sounds of the singing. The familiar tune of “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” carries over the crying of children, the honking of the horns, and the general confusion created by cramming 25,000 people into one run down slum.

Two Converts to Christianity Face Death in Nigeria

MADA, Nigeria (Compass) — Two Nigerian Muslims who converted to the Christian faith in Mada village of northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state are missing, possibly at the hands of Muslim fundamentalists seeking to kill them for changing their faith.

No Positive Change For Vietnam’s Protestants

HO CHI MINH CITY (Compass) — In April, 26 years after the communist takeover of Vietnam, authorities granted legal status to Protestants of the southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECVN). Optimists felt this might signal a change in the oppressive religious policy that has long marked Vietnamese communism, especially with the rise of “moderate” Nong Duc Manh to general secretary of the Communist Party.

Activist Christian Pastor Arrested in Vietnam

HO CHI MINH CITY, August 21 (Compass) — A pastor and lawyer who has been regularly harassed for exposing religious liberty abuses in Vietnam was arrested on August 17 along with his wife and another man in the capital city of this Southeast Asian country.

American Missionaries Turn One Year in Captivity

ZAMBOANGA CITY, PHILIPPINES (ANS) — The American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham turns one year old today under the captive of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a terrorist group operating in the Southern Philippines and believed to have links to the Al Qa’ida network in Afghanistan.

Ayub Masish Flees Pakistan

SANTA ANA, CA (ANS) — Christian prisoner Ayub Masih fled his native Pakistan and arrived in an undisclosed country in the West on Wednesday after being imprisoned for six years on blasphemy charges. Despite being acquitted and released on August 15 by Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Masih’s life remains under constant threat from Muslim extremists.

They Sang in their Cells in Bangladesh Despite Persecution

Three Gospel for Asia Bible school students in Bangladesh were sharing Christ in the village of Vasu during a six-month ministry assignment. Muslim extremists, angry to see a Gospel witness in their village, went to the police with false claims that the young men were terrorists.

Christian Massacre Survivor Set Free in Karachi

ISTANBUL, October 24 (Compass) — Forty-eight hours after Karachi police abducted Robin Peranditta from the grounds of the Sindh High Court, the traumatized survivor of last month’s deadly Christian massacre is now confirmed to be released from police custody.

Secret Government Documents Reveal Cover Campaign of Persecution Against Chinese Christians

NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) — The sheer volume of hard evidence presented at the press conference was staggering.
Names, addresses and photographs of 23,686 Chinese Christians recently arrested for their faith. Twenty thousand beaten. One hundred twenty-nine killed. More than 4,000 sentenced to labor and “re-education” camps. Homes and property confiscated or destroyed, leaving tens of thousands of children homeless orphans.

30 Chinese Christian Leaders Abducted

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — An uncertain number of leaders of a major house church movement in China have disappeared in what at first was thought to be a massive government raid. Now cult activity is suspected.

China’s Anti-Cult Campaign in Context

In late April, reports filtered out from China that about 100 leaders of the evangelical China Gospel Fellowship — a major house church grouping that claims some four million members — had been arrested by the police. Soon after, contradictory but more reliable reports said these key leaders had almost certainly been kidnapped by the sinister Lightning from the East (LFE) cult in a carefully orchestrated strategy.

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