With the U.S. military assistance to the Philippine government to help rescue Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham from their abductors the Abu Sayyaf Group, an Islamic rebel leader told ASSIST News Service that the abductors will use the Christian missionaries as their human shields when a U.S.-Philippine military joint rescue operation commences.
Six members of a Baptist congregation in the town of Khazar (formerly Cheleken) were fined in mid-January for holding “illegal services”, Keston News Service has learned. The instruction to fine them came from the political police, the KNB (former KGB), the six were told. The Turkmen authorities routinely fine members of unregistered religious congregations for holding religious meetings, even if such meetings take place in private homes.
There were fresh reports about persecution of Christians throughout the former Soviet Union Monday January 20, including the arrests of Pentecostal leaders and the banning of the world famous Jesus film in several regions.
Amid growing pressure on Protestant congregations, two leaders of the unregistered Pentecostal church Living Stones have been arrested and given fifteen-day prison terms, Protestant sources in the Azerbaijani capital Baku have told Keston News Service. The two – Yusuf Farkhadov and Kasym Kasymov – were detained in Sumgait, a town close to Baku, when police and National Security Ministry officers raided a prayer meeting last Friday (18 January) held in a private flat in the town’s 9th micro-district.
Fourteen Churches in Zamfara State, in Northern Nigeria are now facing demolition threat by the state government, which claims that there are too many Christian worship centers in the state. Zamfara state, which spearheaded the adoption of Islamic law in northern Nigeria contrary to the country’s secular constitution, is predominantly Muslim, populated with less than a five percent Christian population.
An American missionary couple held hostage in the southern Philippines for eight months by the Muslim rebel group Abu Sayyaf has cried out for help, at a time of emotional and physical pain.
Soon after winning the right to host the 2008 Olympics, China is showing the world that being a non-registered Christian is a most dangerous sport.
Two founding members of the South China Church have been sentenced to death following a secret trial.
Two Christians have been killed in the Chinese government’s crackdown on pastor Gong Shengliang and his South China Church in central Hubei Province, according to a letter from members of the underground church revealing graphic details and new information about the persecution.
Christians in Vietnam face oppressive, often brutal, persecution from authorities. Despite official measures to kill Christianity, the church of Jesus Christ continues to grow.
A refugee camp on the Thailand/Burma border has been overrun by troops sent by the Burmese military junta.
Word has just been received out of China that authorities there recently martyred a member of the South China Church. Voice of the Martyrs sources have learned that the Public Security Bureau (PSB) informed family members of sister Zhong Ju Yu last summer that she was beaten to death while imprisoned in Hubei Province.
The forty-six-year-old founder of the “South China” house church movement, Gong Shengliang, was granted a reprieve from his death sentence, which was due to be carried out on Saturday, January 5. Gong was given a stay of execution, relatives said.
The Voice of the Martyrs is making an urgent appeal to Christians around the world to pray for Pastor Gong Shengliang. Pastor Gong was reportedly sentenced to death last month after a court in Hubei Province declared him guilty of using an “evil cult” to “undermine the enforcement of the law” and of “complicity of rape.”
Saudi Arabian authorities transferred the last five of 14 foreign Christians from their Jeddah prison cell to a deportation center yesterday, according to nine other Christian prisoners already moved there on December 22 and 23.
The founder of the South China Church was sentenced to death after a secret trial on December 18, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said.
Christian Aid’s contact in Indonesia has just returned from a visit to the Poso and Tentena area and shares the following update on the current situation.–John Lindner, Editor
The Miracle of Answered Prayer
Radical Islamic warriors are continuing their rain of terror on the Christians of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. A VOM source has confirmed that 21 Christian villages in the Poso coastal area have been burned and destroyed and at least 7 people have been killed within the past week.
Four Examples of Courage and Faith in 2001
There is no such thing as a “typical” persecuted Christian. Yet among the millions of persecuted believers worldwide, some qualities might be considered typical: courage, patience, persistence, and faithfulness. Below are the stories of four Christians currently under great pressure for their faith. They and their families have come to typify those very qualities. They would not claim to be “persecuted Christians of the year” or even desire it. They would only ask not to be forgotten.
Over 50,000 Christians are in grave jeopardy as they are surrounded by jihad terrorists in central Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.