The US State Department has published its International Religious Freedom (IRF) Report for 2020, providing an overview of religious freedom and persecution around the world, International Christian Concern reports. This year’s IRF condemned countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and China for their abuses of religious freedom, and stated that the US would continue to address the issue.
As part of a campaign to discredit Christianity, Hindu extremists in Nepal forged a document they falsely attributed to the Nepal Christian Society (NCS) and the National Churches Fellowship of Nepal (NCFPN), in which they presumed to show these charities want to create an ethnic division for evangelistic purposes, Morning Star News reports.
Christian missionaries and church leaders already suffering persecution in several areas are among those dying of severe symptoms of COVID-19 raging in India, aid workers say.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has published a report showing that around 5.2 billion people live in countries where religious freedom is severely violated and restricted, International Christian Concern reports. These countries include China, India, and Pakistan, which have the world’s largest populations.
A Christian family is confined to their home after being attacked and harassed by tribal animists in India’s Jharkhand state, Morning Star News reports. India now ranks 10th on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries where Christians are persecuted: the country ranked 31st in 2013, just before Hindu nationalists Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014.
A Christian girl abducted in Pakistan more than six weeks ago was forcefully converted to Islam and married to her kidnapper, Christian activists told Worthy News.
Gujarat has become the latest Indian state to pass anti-conversion legislation which primarily targets Christians and Muslims accused of forcing poor Hindus to convert to their respective faiths, International Christian Concern reports. Gujarat is currently led by the Hindu nationalist party Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP), which is also India’s governing power.
Rights groups report that Christian persecution in India has worsened since Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Whereas in 2013 India ranked 31st on the Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians are persecuted, it now ranks 10th.
The wife of an evangelical pastor in eastern India has been freed after she was abducted, sold, and locked up in a brothel for nearly a month, Worthy News learned Monday.
A Christian young man faces execution by hanging death after a Pakistani court sentenced him to death for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages about Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
A Christian couple and their three children are reportedly homeless in India’s western Jharkhand state for refusing to abandon their in Christ and accept tribal rituals.
A violent mob of around 70 people attacked a prayer meeting in a private home in India’s Chhattisgarh state Monday, destroying property, assaulting those gathered, and hospitalizing at least six believers with serious injuries, CSW reports. Chhattisgarh is one of nine states with controversial anti-conversion laws that are often used to harass and intimidate religious minorities from sharing their faith.
Two Christian congregations in central India were attacked on the same day by around 100 radical Hindu nationalists who stormed each of their worship gatherings on February 7, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. While there are no reports of the attackers being arrested, the pastor of one of the churches attacked was arrested and detained before being released on bail.
The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh registered 23 cases against Christians and Muslims in the first 23 days of the country’s newest and most severe anti-conversion law, International Christian Concern reports. The government of Madhya Pradesh is dominated by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the current ruling party in India.
Hindu nationalists carried out another attack on Christians in southern India on January 31, International Christian Concern reports. Six of the twenty-eight Christians who were injured in the attack in the Ramnagara District of Karnataka required hospital treatment.
The Open Doors persecution watchdog has published its 2021 list of countries where it is most dangerous for Christians to practice their faith, Christianity Today reports. Published this month, the list is based on grassroots reports from Open Door workers between November 1, 2019, and October 31, 2020.
A Hindu nationalist leader in India’s Madhya Pradesh state has demanded that local authorities shut down all churches in the state’s tribal areas, falsely claiming that Christians are carrying out mass conversions on “gullible indigenous peoples,” International Christian Concern reports. Head of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Azad Prem Singh threatened violent action if his January 11 demand is not met within 30 days.
A new report forecasts that Christians in India will be subject to increased persecution in 2021, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
A pastor in northeast India has been rescued after a gang of radical Hindus locked him in a room and left him to die because he was distributing Gospel tracts, Morning Star News reports. Pastor Shelton Vishwanathan was accosted by six men who knocked him unconscious and imprisoned him in a room in Bihar state’s Sheohar District on October 5.
A high court in India has ordered the district administration of Kondagaon to facilitate the safe return of Christians who were displaced from their villages by radical Hindu nationalists in Chhattisgarh state, Assist News reports. The order was issued by Bilaspur High Court on November 8.