The director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom has stated that Christians in Afghanistan are being killed by the ruling Taliban Islamic extremists, Christian Today reports. Nina Shea made her remarks after the Taliban took over Afghanistan again on August 15, and as US troops prepared to leave.
China’s communist authorities have jailed four Christian businessmen for selling audio Bibles amid a government crackdown on Christians engaged in “illegal” faith-related activities, trial observers told Worthy News.
Sudanese government officials have detained a shipment of Bibles by demanding customs fees from which it is exempt, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. The officials’ actions are cause for concern in light of the new government’s pledge to allow religious freedom in Sudan following the ouster of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Three Christians have been imprisoned in India’s Uttar Pradesh state after Hindu extremists beat them up and accused them of unlawfully converting people to Christianity, Morning Star News reports. Persecution against Christians in India has greatly intensified since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
As Fulani jihadists continue their sustained campaign of terror attacks against Christians in Nigeria, they have now attacked and destroyed a Christian orphanage in the country’s Plateau state, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Vietnam has come under fire from US government officials and international human rights advocates after Vietnamese authorities raided two churches and arrested over 20 Christians, almost all of whom belong to the persecuted Montagnard ethnic group, in May, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Fulani Islamic militants in Nigeria’s Plateau state beheaded a Christian father and his 7-year old son on July 29, as the two walked home from choir practice, reported International Christian Concern.
The corpses of 43 people, including women and children, have so far been recovered following the latest attacks by Fulani militants on seven predominantly Christian villages in Nigeria’s Plateau and Kaduna states, International Christian Concern reports. Just the most recent in the ongoing slaughter of Christians by radicalized Fulani herdsmen, the attacks were carried out in the early hours of the morning of August 2.
The White House announced Friday a slate of nominations and appointments for top religious affairs roles, including the first Muslim American nominated to be the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom (IRF).
A pastor has paid tribute to eight Christian families driven out of their village in eastern India earlier this year due to their “strong faith” in Jesus Christ.
Christians expressed concerns Thursday about new religious legislation in Azerbaijan that bars churches from naming leaders without state approval.
Islamic terrorists have released 32 of more than 100 students they kidnapped from Nigeria’s Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna State on July 5, International Christian Concern reports. More than 1,000 students in Nigeria have been kidnapped this year alone.
The International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) has published a report attesting that Fulani Jihadists and Boko Haram terrorists have already murdered some 3,462 Christians in Nigeria this year, International Christian Concern reports.
A Virginia judge ruled at a hearing on Friday that Christian ministries must do more than make “speculative claims” about the harm they would suffer from a new state law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity if they want to prosecute a case against it, Just the News reports. The hearing took place in Loudoun County Court before Circuit Judge James Plowman.
As deadly violence against Christians in Nigeria continues unabated, militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen conducted attacks on 16 Christian farming villages in the Miango community of Plateau state last week, displacing over 11,000 people, International Christian Concern reports.
Christian pastors are among at least 100 people who have been beaten and imprisoned by the Cuban government amid nationwide protests against systemic rights violations, the severe economic crisis, and the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Christian Post reports. Pleading for help from the international community, the wife of an imprisoned pastor has called on Christians worldwide to pray for Cubans suffering government violence.
Christians in Islamic Afghanistan are calling for “fervent” prayer as US, NATO, and Australian forces prepare to withdraw all troops by September, Vision Christian Radio radio reports. The US Open Doors watchdog group has rated the level of persecution against Christians in Afghanistan as ‘Extreme,’ even with the presence of US and allied troops in the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ended its first year in its current form without rulings that Republicans hoped for, and liberal Democrats feared, from transgender issues to challenging critical parts of Obamacare.
As Islamic militants continue the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, suspected Fulani Muslim militants murdered a Christian doctor in Niger state and 17 other Christians in Plateau state this month, International Christian Concern reports. At least 1500 Christians have been killed by Islamic militants this year alone; the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in its 2021 annual report that Nigeria has become a “killing field for Christians.”
A court of appeals in Pakistan has upheld the life sentence of Zafar Bhatti, a Christian man who was convicted and imprisoned in 2017 for supposedly sending insulting text messages Islam’s prophet Mohammed, Morning Star News reports. Pakistan is one of nine nations the US has designated a “Country of Particular Concern” for severe violations of religious freedom.