A judge on Wednesday (July 9) handed a life sentence to a Muslim found guilty of abducting and raping a Christian girl but ignored accusations of forcible conversion and fraudulent marriage, the victim’s attorney said.
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.
Kenya hosted the first-ever International Religious Freedom Summit in Africa with delegates from across the globe convening in Nairobi mid-June to deliberate on the theme - Africa Together: A Continental Call to Religious Call to Religious Freedom.
In a significant development, a court in Pakistan refused to hand custody of a Catholic girl to a Muslim who abducted and forcibly converted/married her, noting that as a minor she could not go with him even if she said she was willing to do so, sources said.
Less than three weeks after a large-scale massacre in Benue state’s predominantly Christian Yelwata village in Nigeria, four Christians were slain in the same county, sources said.
Hindu extremists in central India on June 8 ransacked a church’s worship building, burned Bibles and assaulted every member, causing one to lose consciousness, sources said.
Authorities in Colombia on Tuesday (July 1) discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of eight Christian leaders in Calamar, Guaviare Department, according to the attorney general’s office.
Christian groups on Monday (June 30) called on Italy to broaden religious freedoms to protect a wider range of church denominations at the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC).
The 12th General Assembly of the Latin Evangelical Alliance (AEL) concluded on Sept. 12 in Cartagena with a clear and forceful message: the evangelical churches of Ibero-America are determined to take a leading role in shaping public life. United in purpose, they pledged to defend religious freedom, the family, and the right to life, while deepening their unity and expanding their social engagement.
