Indigenous ministries in India, helped by donations given through Christian Aid, are hard at work assisting the survivors of January’s deadly earthquake. The Indian government recently approved one ministry’s request to “adopt” a village.
As numbers of lower caste Indians embrace Christ, and in the face of the increasingly violence against Christians in India at the hands of Hindu militants, Dr. Joseph D’Souza, President of the All India Christian Council, is asking for Christians from around the world to pray for his nation during the month of July. God is mightily at work in India and so it should not surprise us that persecution should be on the rise as well.
WASHINGTON (BP)–The State Department’s second report on global religious liberty presents a challenge for the U.S. government to act against persecution, the chairman of a federal commission said.
BANGALORE, India (Compass) — The Indian government has launched its own “war on terrorism” against two fronts: terrorists and missionaries. The Hindu fundamentalist government is planning to introduce two bills that are being condemned as “draconian” by religious minorities in India.
(Ann Arbor, Michigan) – A lawsuit brought by the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU), on behalf of two plaintiffs, to take down a Ten Commandments monument that has stood in front of the Knox County Courthouse since 1958 was recently dismissed by a federal judge.
ISTANBUL, November 27 (Compass) — More than a dozen foreign Christians remain jailed in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, where local authorities have for months ignored inquiries and notes of protest from consulates requesting diplomatic access to their imprisoned citizens.
LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) — Most Christians understand the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism around the world, but few are aware of a virulent strain of Hindu radicalism targeting believers in India.
Indian Christian, Prabhu Isaac, is due to be deported from Jiddah tonight after spending more than six months in Saudi prisons in connection with his Christian faith.
Turkmenistan has moved to fifth place on the Open Doors World Watch List of worst persecutors of Christians, behind Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Laos and China, causing “great concern” to persecution watchers around the world.
A militant Hindu hate website displaying the names of international evangelists, secular and Christian scholars from India, and other “enemies of Hinduism” on its “hit-list” was back on-line after it was salvaged by a radical Jewish organization in Brooklyn, New York. The website calls on militant Hindus to commit violence against the men and women listed.
INDIA – (Compass, July 9, 2001) – A militant Hindu hate website displaying the names of international evangelists, secular and Christian scholars from India, and other “enemies of Hinduism†on its “hit-list†was back on-line after it was salvaged by a radical Jewish organization in Brooklyn, New York. The website calls on militant Hindus to commit violence against the men and women listed.
In a fresh attack on Christians and Muslims, the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in demanding the “Indianization” of Christians and Muslims in the country.
A fundamentalist Hindu mob attacked a church in the eastern Indian state of Tripura on February 25. Church leaders say the Krishnanagar Baptist Church in the capital Agartala was attacked as Christians were attending the Sunday service. The mob forced the pastor to stop the service.
Amid fears that Hindu extremists are persecuting Christians in greater numbers, Nepali church leaders launched the Forum for Human Concern in Nepal in January to safeguard religious freedom and garner international support for the release of four Christians jailed since October 29 on charges of proselytizing.
Members of the radical Hindu group the Bajrang Dal beat two Christian workers, David Massey and Simon Sakria, for more than two hours on January 4 for showing a “Jesus” film in Jehra, a remote village on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border in western India. Church leaders said the two Christians had gone to visit the house of a local pastor when they were attacked.
A prominent Indian church leader is warning of a possible bloodbath against Christians by Hindu fundamentalists.
11 April 2000 (Newsroom) — A communist rebel group in India’s Bihar state beat to death two tribal Christians and severely injured four others on April 4, according to the Times of India.
10 July 2000 (Newsroom) — Bomb blasts damaged two churches in India’s southern Karnataka state over the weekend as Christians across the nation staged marches and rallies to protest sectarian violence.
AIZAWL, India, 1 September 2000 (Newsroom) — Religious leaders in the predominantly Christian state of Mizoram have asked police to investigate recent incidents of Satan worship involving teenagers, a trend that some officials blame on television shows about the paranormal and the occult.
Another day, another bombing. That’s the impression being created, at least, by a mounting wave of attacks on Christians and churches in India.