Indonesia’s hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) group broke up a house church meeting in the country’s West Java province, prompting an angry response from the governor. Video footage obtained by Worthy News showed two men bursting into a home Sunday in Cikarang, 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Jakarta, the nation’s capital.
China’s Communist government has halted online church services despite the coronavirus pandemic forcing many Christians to stay at home this Easter, Worthy News learned Saturday. The online religious rights watchdog Bitter Winter and local Christians said only groups holding state-issued licenses could stream religious services online in China. “We can’t get together because of the pandemic,” an underground house church pastor in the province of Jiangxi told Bitter Winter.
U.S. tech giants Apple and Google have unveiled a plan to track down people who may have been infected by the new coronavirus, despite concerns among rights activists. Their software allows governments to roll out apps for “contact tracing” that will run on smartphones such as iPhones and Android.
Concerns remained Thursday over the whereabouts of a jailed Christian in China after authorities prevented his wife from sending him money and clothes, Christian activists say. Jiang Zhanchun was arrested in China’s capital Beijing last year when he and his wife discussed opportunities to be baptized with Christian leaders of a Beijing house church, according to the letter seen by Worthy News.
Iranian authorities have released another Christian convert from prison amid concerns the new coronavirus COVID-19 could spread in overcrowded jails, Christian activists said Monday. Amin Khaki, 38, learned from prison authorities Monday that he should not return to jail, confirmed well-informed advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC). “It is expected that he will be able to reclaim the money put down as security,” MEC told Worthy News.
The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka is calling for the establishment of an “anti-conversion” law he claims will “save this country” from the phenomenon of people converting from Buddhism to other religions, Christians say as a pretext for persecution.
Iran has released a Christian woman who was jailed after refusing to reconvert to Islam, activists confirmed to Worthy News. Rokhsareh (Mahrokh) Ghanbari, 62, is among some 85,000 prisoners freed in recent weeks amid concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19.
The married-father-of-three has come a long way since he nearly blew up a Protestant church in Jakarta. Author Ahmad Quraisy, which isn’t his family name, was a commander of the feared Islamic State of Indonesia (NII), an Indonesian militant group. But the former Islamic terrorist now leads an underground movement in Indonesia converting Muslims to Christianity or, in his words, ‘personal faith in Christ.’
A church in China formerly part of the government-recognized Three-self branch of churches was shut down, propelling around 200 believers to begin to meet in secret.
Iranian Christians are asking for prayer support as the Islamic Republic, in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus, has begun releasing huge crowds of prisoners that include persecuted Christians.
Iran’s leadership has been hit especially hard by the coronavirus, as the Islamic Republic predicts that 40% of residents in its capital of Tehran will be infected by the spreading virus within two weeks.
A Christian man in Pakistan who felt led to gather all the local house churches together into one community has sustained critical injuries after Muslim neighbors surrounded his land and viciously assaulted his family.
Twenty Iranians recently flew out of Tehran to get baptized in a secret location outside of the Islamic Republic.
A pastor in India and former carpenter who built his own house church nine years ago has seen his flock all but scattered after villagers, instigated by a local Brahmin with high political connections, dug a trench to prevent people from entering and harassed believers through the month of January.
A pastor in India and his family were held hostage for several hours by Hindu radicals who accused him of carrying out forced conversions and defacing Hindu idols, police blaming and arresting the pastor afterwards.
Hindu extremists attacked a house church pastor at the beginning of January who had been working as a day-laborer to provide for his wife and small children, but now he can barely walk, sustaining not only crippling injuries from the beatings, but also false accusations of bribing people to convert.
A pastor in Hubei Province, China is facing up to 10 years in prison for fraud charges resulting from her refusal to comply with government regulations on religion, surpassing the sentence of persecuted house church pastor Wang Yi.
The grave of an Assemblies of God pastor from Mashad, Iran–the same town in which Soleimani replacement Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani rose through the ranks–was destroyed this past December by the Iranian regime.
The Trump administration has condemned the imprisonment of Wang Yi, pastor of one of China’s best-known unregistered house churches, calling it another example of ‘Beijing’s intensification of repression of Chinese Christians and members of other religious groups.’
Christians in central India accused of illegally practicing medicine spent Christmas Eve and Christmas in jail, later discovering that the charges against them applied to prayers for healing in which they had engaged.