A food vendor in northern Nigeria was killed on Saturday (Aug. 30) by a mob that accused her of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad. A casual conversation between a nephew, who jokingly suggested marriage to the woman, turned into another lynching by the public on the grounds of alleged blasphemy.
India’s famed Emperor Ashoka was an ancient convert from Hinduism to Buddhism. He demonstrated that a person is NOT forced by others to convert from one religion to another. Today, “religious conversions are forced,” is the flawed premise of all anti-conversion laws of India. Who could have forced mighty Emperor Ashoka to change his religion? The Emperor’s famous religious conversion was his choice.
The situation for Iranian people is more dangerous now than before the recent war with Israel and the United States of America. Even more so for Christians who represent a growing minority religion in the staunchly Shia theocracy. Under threat, the ruling regime has increased its morality terror with brutal force.
In a perfect world, where legal systems hold political power to account and protect minorities against human rights abuses we might expect an end to persecution. But we do not live in a perfect world. People with power continue to act with impunity against those who think and live differently to them. Christians have a way to cope with this reality and a real and living hope for a future free of persecution.
New political winds are blowing with increasing force as the push-back against globalization grows with increasing nationalisms. The demand to pledge allegiance to something other than God in Christ will put renewed pressure on the Church and we need to be prepared to hold true to our faith. Here is a stern warning that Christians must take to heart.
Religious freedom in Pakistan is facing unprecedented threats as Muslim extremist groups increase their hold on public officials, according to a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Prisoners from minority backgrounds, particularly Christians, face systemic bias in Pakistani jails and are subjected to abuse by prison staff and Muslim inmates, a new study shows.
Officials and Muslim clerics in a village in West Java Province, Indonesia have closed a prayer house, expelled an evangelist and indefinitely halted all Christian activities there, media outlets reported.
A Christian mother in Somalia has been locked in a room with her infant daughter since Aug. 6 after Muslim relatives relocated her following an earlier escape, sources said.
In the nearly 21 years since two Orthodox priests were arbitrarily imprisoned in Eritrea, their wives have died.
A Muslim who put his faith in Christ after receiving a vision in a mosque in Uganda was hospitalized after relatives beat him, demolished his home and took in his wife and six children, sources said.
The All India Congress on Church in Mission (AICOCIM) opened Monday in Nagpur with a strong call for unity, courage, and renewed obedience as the Indian Church navigates a time of cultural, legal, and spiritual challenge.
