Displaying items by tag: Christian persecution

A congregation of 100 Christians celebrating a Maundy Thursday service in Uttar Pradesh’s Fathepur District were threatened by a radical Hindu mob who surrounded the church and subsequently locked the doors. A First Information Report was lodged against 36 of the Christians on alleged forced conversion charges based on Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion laws after the mob’s leader, Himanshu Dikshit, complained that the church was working to convert Hindus to the Christian faith. Most of the congregation were freed from the locked church, but the 36 remained in jail until the wider Christian community raised their bail amount. One of the congregation said, ‘This is a perfect portrayal of Jesus’ suffering 2,000 years ago. We know Jesus endured, and we will.’

Christians are the majority of Mexico’s total population, but they are targeted by unlawful gangs for speaking out against criminal operations and violence. Cartels violently try to silence them. In rural indigenous communities, anyone turning away from traditional religious beliefs faces rejection and punishment in the form of fines, imprisonment, and forced displacement. Non-discrimination laws mean that any links between Christian faith and politics are placed under very strict legal scrutiny. In areas controlled by criminals or drug cartels, young Christian men are exposed to forced enrolment. Those who do not accept it face threats, potential abduction, and even death. Families are bribed and intimidated to force their children to obey the gangs. Church leaders are victims of blackmail because they have access to church funds. Mexico also has the highest rate of human trafficking in the world. Women are easy targets.

Islamic teacher, Hiire Sadiki, was poisoned on April 2, shortly after his wife learned he had converted to Christianity. He put his faith in Christ on March 27 after several months of discussions with a Christian pastor. After he didn’t observe the Ramadan fast and his wife noticed him praying in the name of Christ she questioned his mode of praying. He told her he believed in Issa (Jesus]). His wife had studied the Koran and knew verses about apostasy punishment. She left the room and began phoning Muslim leaders, then returned and prepared supper. ‘After 30 minutes, a neighbour arrived, went to the kitchen and then immediately left. After supper Sadiki suffered convulsions and vomiting and phoned the pastor who took him to hospital. Tests indicated his food was tainted with insecticides used to kill rats. The assault was the latest of many instances of Christian persecution in Uganda. 

On April 8, in Mandalay, approximately 40 soldiers from the Burmese Army (Tatmadaw) raided Sacred Heart Cathedral during Lent preparations searching for gold, money and ‘hidden weapons.’ They held scores of worshippers hostage for hours, including Archbishop Marco Tin Win. They claimed to have been tipped off about weapons being hidden in the clergy centre. When the vicar general of the Archdiocese explained that the only money they had was donations raised for the poor, he too was pushed into the cathedral. The ongoing assaults against churches and religious leaders should not be ignored by the international community. They intimidate Christians, they also occupy, desecrate, and loot churches across Myanmar.

26 pastors have been explicitly named and included in written threats. A Christian leader from a nearby city said other Christians in the area have also received threats, but still gather for worship, saying, ‘This is God’s work and we will not deny Him. It is difficult, we must face these things. Please pray that we are not discouraged.’ Police have not taken action and are not interested in pursuing those who attack or kill believers. Sometimes the police side with the persecutors. Please pray for the 26 named pastors to be protected from harm. Their names can’t be shared for security reasons, but God knows them. Pray for all Christian leaders in India to receive God’s love and strength, and continue to be resilient in their faith and witness as the attacks against Christian leaders increase daily. Even if they don’t kill in all the cases, the injuries are serious and long-lasting.

In mid-March, 29 evangelical Christians (17 women and twelve men) were arrested at a house church and taken to Mai Serwa prison camp. Such Christian gatherings have been in homes for twenty years after all churches were closed apart from Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran. Every neighbourhood has a government spy living there observing it and reporting unusual activity to the authorities. Churches have found government spies pretending to be Christians, joining and reporting on congregations. Mai Serwa houses more prisoners than it was built for. They are held in shipping containers holding 20+ detainees. Often prisoners take turns to sleep on bare floors because beds or mattresses are not allowed. The conditions were condemned by Amnesty International in 2020. With overcrowding and lack of adequate sanitation, healthcare, and food, conditions are inhumane; Covid-19 is a major concern. Prisoners' conditions have disastrous consequences on their mental and physical health.

Since the 2021 coup which deposed Myanmar’s democratically elected government, the Burmese military has been attacking its own civilians. The junta that controls the government continues to destroy religious buildings with artillery attacks and airstrikes on civilian areas in the Christian-majority Chin state. Residents in some regions have formed militias to resist those destroying religious buildings (often used as shelters during attacks). In Chin state, over 35 churches and 15 other Christian-affiliated buildings were destroyed between February 2021 and January 2022. In Kayah state 12 churches were destroyed in the same period. In May 2021 the military continuously shelled Sacred Heart Church in the capital of Kayah state, killing four who were sheltering there and causing extensive damage. Myanmar’s cardinal published a plea to the regime, urging them to stop targeting religious buildings. The military ignored his request and are continuing to shell many more churches.

As India’s election process gathers momentum, more Christians are being attacked. Haryana is the tenth state to pass an anti-conversion law preventing Christians from sharing their faith or Hindus from converting freely. A Haryana pastor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, ‘There has been a gradual shutdown of house churches in the region through threats and violence. The new law will be one more step to validate what they have been doing to Christians. The law can be misused to target innocent Christians.’ Opposition Congress members staged a walkout of the legislative assembly on 22 March in protest at the bill. They called anti-conversion measures ‘draconian’ and said its passing would be ‘a black day in Haryana’s history that will deepen the communal divide. The bill is in violation of the Indian constitution, which gives the right to profess, practice and propagate a person's religion’.

A 20-foot statue of Jesus that stood next to Gokunte village's St Francis Xavier's Church in Karnataka state for 18 years was demolished after local officials claimed it was built on land reserved for animal pasture. ‘We have prayed at the statue since 2004’, said a villager. ‘Despite asking the authorities to safely remove the statue and hand it over to us, it was destroyed and removed in a tractor.’ Father Lobo of the Catholic bishops' council said, ‘The video of the demolition was widely circulated, and Christians are alarmed and pained at such repeated acts by the pro-Hindu government machinery’. The bishops say dishonouring the Jesus statue is an example of growing attacks against Karnataka state Christians by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party. Open Doors warned, ‘The persecution of Christians in India is intensifying as Hindu extremists aim to cleanse the country of their presence and influence’.

Gao Zhisheng is a Christian human rights attorney in China who has dedicated his career toward those being persecuted by the government. While not always a Christian, Gao was a former member of the People’s Liberation Army and later of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, he tossed that identity aside and took up the fight for victims of persecution as China looked to rebrand its cruel identity. This made him a clear target for the CCP throughout his career, leading to many cycles of being abducted, tortured, and released. Today, his whereabouts are unknown to anyone but his most recent captors, who made Gao disappear in 2017. As Beijing cheers for the athletes fighting for glory, let us pray for those like Gao who have the courage to challenge the regime and fight for Beijing’s victims. Pray for an end to the ongoing human rights disaster in China.