Persecution

A pathway to flames

Persecution | The power of dictators cannot ultimately protect them

by Janie B. Cheaney
Posted 5/12/20, 10:03 am

Does anyone remember when Kim Jong-un, the young and rotund Communist dictator of North Korea, died? I remember well, because it was only last month. As reported by respectable news outlets, death was all but certain, especially since Kim had not appeared at the obligatory celebration of his grandfather’s birthday in April. It’s also well known that the self-indulgent scion of his ruthless dynasty is morbidly obese and not in good health.

Attacks on Nigerian Christians persist despite pandemic lockdowns

Persecution | Coronavirus restrictions aren’t halting Fulani herdsmen’s assaults

by Onize Ohikere
Posted 5/08/20, 01:43 pm

Minutes before 9 p.m. Tuesday, Anglican Rev. Canon Bayo James Famonure was praying with his wife and two sons in the family’s sitting room when at least three armed herdsmen stormed into their home in Nigeria’s central Plateau state.

The latest in a string of attacks on Christian leaders in central Nigeria began with the gunmen demanding money. Famonure said he had no cash, and the intruders shot him in the head and leg. Then they shot his wife, Naomi, in the back, and their two sons in their legs.

U.S. calls out India for persecution

by Harvest Prude
Posted 4/28/20, 03:59 pm

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom warned of growing abuses of Muslims, Christians, and other religious minorities in India in its 2020 annual report released on Tuesday. This year, the commission added India to its Countries of Particular Concern list for the first time since 2004. The country’s ruling Hindu nationalist party instituted citizenship policies in January that USCIRF said could leave the country’s religious minorities, especially Muslims, without legal protections.

Modern-day slaves

International

The Editors | 3/26/20, 02:58 pm

40.3 million

The number of slaves in the world, according to the Walk Free Foundation’s 2018 Global Slavery Index. The total number of slaves included 24.9 million persons working in forced labor (including those trafficked for sex) and 15.4 million persons in forced marriages. The United States was rated as low in terms of numbers of slaves and as strong in terms of government responses. However, the United States ranked the highest in terms of imports of products at risk of being produced by slave labor, with $144 billion in such imports.

China’s non-coronavirus news

China | Beijing continues a crackdown on dissidents, Hong Kong protesters, and religious minorities

June Cheng | 3/06/20, 08:40 am

While the China-related headlines have focused on the novel coronavirus outbreak for the last month and a half, you may have missed other breaking news that reveals the continuing trend of China flexing its control inside and outside the country.

Swedish bookseller sentenced to 10 years

Fear broken

Persecution | Standing firm without counting the cost marks Iran’s jailed Christians

Mindy Belz | 2/27/20, 04:51 pm

In 2009 Victor Bet Tamraz received a call at his home from an officer with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security summoning him to the church he pastored. When he arrived at Tehran Pentecostal Assyrian Church, officers told him: Stop holding services in Farsi or we close the church.

Shadow groups within shadow groups

Persecution | Iran’s jailed Christians face ordeals no U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign can reach

Mindy Belz | 2/27/20, 03:00 pm

Mary Fatemeh Mohammadi joined other protesters in January who flooded Tehran’s Enghelab Street and headed to Azadi Square in the city center. For three days, thousands of Iranians braved tear gas, arrests, and sporadic gunfire in an outpouring of anger and grief following the downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet. Authorities had lied and covered up the cause of the Jan. 8 crash: an Iranian soldier firing a rocket at what he mistook as an American cruise missile.

Latest Xinjiang leak reveals more persecution

Onize Ohikere | 2/18/20, 11:00 am

Chinese authorities detained more than 300 Uighur Muslims for reasons like having too many children or being friends with “a suspicious figure living overseas,” according to a leaked document published by the German news outlet Deutsche Welle. The translated 137-page document includes a database of names, identification numbers, and behaviors of more than 1,800 Uighurs from Karakax County in the Xinjiang region.

Gunmen attack Burkina Faso church

Onize Ohikere | 2/18/20, 09:59 am

About 20 suspected extremists killed 24 people, including the pastor, at a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on Sunday. The attackers injured 18 and kidnapped three others in the town of Pansi in Yagha province, near the border with conflict-hit Niger. They burned down the church and looted oil and rice from the community before leaving on their motorbikes.

Free at last

Africa | Sudan’s era of Islamic dictatorship has ended, and the hard work toward achieving democracy has just begun

Mindy Belz | 1/30/20, 02:01 pm

They said it was the best Christmas in 30 years. On Dec. 25 thousands of Sudanese filled the streets of Khartoum, welcoming not only the birth of Christ but also news that they could celebrate it openly.

President Omar al-Bashir outlawed public Christmas celebrations in 2011. Throughout a 30-year dictatorship, his Islamist-led government cracked down on Christian worship, confiscated church property, and jailed, tortured, and killed Christian believers. A civil war waged under Bashir’s command against the predominantly Christian south killed more than 2 million people.